Interesting methods of going about designing for social change are currently being discussed.  One of the best I have seen is from IDEO, a global design firm.  They have developed a human centered design toolkit.  The toolkit was developed with funding from the Gates Foundation and provides a framework for designing a social venture.  They describe the process as being three fold first you ‘hear’, then you ‘create’, finally you ‘deliver’.   ‘Hearing’ puts yourself in the shoes of the individuals.  ’Creating’ is used to determine the viability of a design.  Finally, ‘deliver’ discusses how you can determine if the entire venture will be viable or not.

Each of these aspects translates directly into the healthcare field in developing countries.  Many times entrepreneurs are not familiar with how developing countries function.  Thus there is a need to place the entrepreneur in the developing countries to ‘hear’ what needs to be accomplished.  Also ‘creating’ is important to ensure the problem can be solved, and ‘delivering’ is needed to ensure the viability of the operation.