Participatory Design as an Approach for Public Engagement in Health Policy-Making in Portugal

Abstract

Improving public participation in the development of Portuguese health policy requires an approach to enable public to participate in a more equal and recipro-cal partnership. Although the Portuguese State highlights the importance of en-couraging public participation to address national problems, the National Health Council reports that public participation in health matters is limited. This brings the question of how does the current Portuguese health policymaking process promotes outcomes that address all key stakeholders needs? This paper presents two case studies where design approaches were used to enable a range of people to participate in health and care innovation. The paper discusses the importance of participatory co-design methods to enhance public participation in health in-novation in Portugal. It highlights reflections for a collaborative model as an ena-bler for healthcare innovation.