On 8 October 2026, Ayşegül Özçelik and Jotte de Koning presented their research, “Co-Creation Beyond the Method: Exploring Transformative Capacity of Co-Creation in Healthcare Systems,” at the 15th Relating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD15) conference. Together with co-author Jan-Carel Diehl, they explore how co-creation can contribute to long-term sustainability transformations in healthcare.

Moving beyond short-term solutions

Healthcare systems face increasingly complex sustainability challenges, from growing medical waste and environmental impacts to rising care demands and resource constraints. Addressing these challenges requires more than isolated innovations or technical solutions. It calls for fundamental changes in how healthcare actors collaborate, make decisions, and organise their daily practices.

Yet co-creation in healthcare is often approached as a method for short-term problem-solving, focused on delivering tangible outcomes within existing institutional structures.

The research presented at RSD15 challenges this perspective. What if the transformative potential of co-creation lies not only in the solutions it produces, but in the relationships it creates and reshapes?

Co-creation as a driver of systemic change

Drawing on 12 sustainability-oriented medical device design projects conducted within Medical Circular Living Labs in Dutch hospitals, the researchers examined how co-creation influences relationships, shared knowledge, and people’s capacity to contribute to sustainable change.

Their findings show that co-creation can bring together healthcare professionals, designers, researchers, and industry partners who rarely interact in their daily work. These encounters create opportunities for mutual learning, challenge existing assumptions, and open up new possibilities for collaboration.

However, the research also highlights an important limitation: without lasting relationships and opportunities to put ideas into practice, co-creation risks reproducing existing structures rather than transforming them.

A shift in perspective is needed

The central message is clear: to enable long-term sustainable healthcare transformation, we need to move beyond treating co-creation as a standalone method.

Instead, co-creation should be understood as an ongoing relational process that enables healthcare actors to build new connections, collectively develop knowledge, and reshape established practices and routines.

Transformation does not simply happen after co-creation. The conditions for transformation can emerge within the collaborative process itself.

By approaching co-creation as a relational medium rather than merely a problem-solving tool, we can create opportunities for sustainable healthcare transformation from within.

The research will continue by exploring how these relationships can be strengthened and sustained over time, contributing to a deeper understanding of co-creation’s transformative potential in healthcare systems.

Research by Ayşegül Özçelik, Jotte de Koning and Jan-Carel Diehl

Presented at RSD15 – Shades of Systemic Design, 8 October 2026