The world of health and healthcare is changing. Shifting demographics, new technologies and different expectations amongst people are completely changing today’s landscape. To make the most of new possibilities and tackle critical challenges in the best way, we must work together. Health Works will run a range of collaborative projects to make this happen.
Today, there is an increasing number of people living with long-term diagnoses and healthcare systems are under stress. At the same time, we see technological breakthroughs that save lives and digital services that make healthcare an accessible part of our everyday life. There is more focus on preventative care and people want to be more in control of their health and treatment choices.
At Health Works we set out to develop impactful solutions to today's and tomorrow's health and healthcare challenges. Our ambition is to achieve this by working together with people whose health challenges we want to solve, as well as collaborating with healthcare professionals, scientists, designers, technologists and policy makers, working towards a common purpose of better health. We focus on therapy areas where AstraZeneca can provide deep knowledge and expertise, including respiratory and immunology, cancer and cardiovascular. The outcome might be new digital health services or smart devices, improved healthcare interactions, increased knowledge or new policies.
If you want to solve important healthcare issues, please get in touch. Health Works is a place where challenges are identified, and problems solved.
Our way of working is based on design thinking*, with three corners stones being central in all projects - people-centricity, collaboration and design for impact.
With people-centricity we simply mean working very closely with the people whose challenges we wish to solve. This includes spending time observing, interviewing and working side by side, to understand the current situation and think of possible ways forward. We also quickly translate what we learn by designing possible solutions, which we keep sharing with the people they are designed for to understand what works and what does not. We believe this is the best way to make sure we focus on the right things.
To solve complex challenges, we need more perspectives. We need collaboration. At Health Works, every project has a clearly defined common purpose, valuable to all project collaborators. The Health Works team will run the projects, involving the right people at the right time to make the most of everyone’s experience and expertise. Learnings from projects are shared with its collaborators, always with the highest respect for the integrity of participating individuals and organisations.
Last but not least, there is a constant focus on design for impact. The ambition is to always prioritise projects where we see the potential of truly creating value, improving people’s lives or making care more efficient. It also means being committed to designing, refining and developing solutions that can and will be implemented. This guides our work and the choice of collaborators.
*If you want to learn more about design thinking there are plenty of resources, amongst them Tim Brown’s TED-talk and Stanford University’s process guide.
The Health Works home is within the emerging GoCo Health Innovation City in Gothenburg, Sweden and it is a place for collaboration and development of new ideas. This is where we will run our projects and there is space for everything from large co-creation sessions to personal conversations, as well as design and testing of possible solutions. There are also scenario rooms, resembling at-home and healthcare environments.
Naturally, a lot of the work and progress will happen outside the building, as project teams immerse themselves in the lives and works of the people they are learning from and collaborating with.
The Health Works team are skilled designers, researchers and project managers. They have a deep understanding of healthcare as well as design thinking and innovation methodologies. Thanks to their broad skillsets, the team are able to explore various different solutions to identified challenges – whether this might be new digital health services or devices, healthcare interactions or initiatives aimed at increasing awareness and knowledge.
All members of the Health Works team are consulting for, or employed by, AstraZeneca to be fully dedicated to Health Works and the projects run here. In every project, this team invites relevant contributors and collaborators. Exactly who depends on the focus of the project, but the people whose challenges we are trying to solve are always involved - without exception
Health Works is an AstraZeneca initiative and part of the company’s growth through innovation strategy. This strategy means responding to a changing world and taking a broader view beyond pharmaceuticals - from disease prevention and screening, diagnosis and treatment through to rehabilitation. It also includes being people-centric and doing more with technology, digital and data to improve different aspects of a person’s health and healthcare experience.
An important part of this strategy is AstraZeneca’s global ecosystem of health innovation hubs, where Health Works is the first in the Nordics. Health Works is both a strategically prioritised and long-term investment for AstraZeneca and will be collaborating with teams across Europe.