Listening to Older Adults: A Co-Design Approach to Inclusive Research

Authored by: Franziska Geese and Vanessa Seijas
Edited by: Ella Kuffour, Emily Lynott, and Natalie Harrison Messerli

Learning Health Systems engage a wide range of stakeholders in the continuous cycle of creating, implementing, and evaluating data-driven interventions. This dynamic collaboration ensures that healthcare innovations are informed by the communities they are meant to serve, promoting relevance, equity, and sustainable impact.

In the Advancing Health Equity in Learning Health Systems course, we explored how participatory engagement and continuous feedback loops are foundational to building systems that are not only efficient but just. Inspired by these principles, this design challenge project focuses on elevating the voices of older adults in shaping the healthcare they receive and the outcomes they experience.

Centering Older Adults Through Co-Design

To shape research that genuinely reflects the lived experiences of older adults, we need more than data points, we need their voices guiding the entire research process. Through a co-design framework, older adults are invited to actively participate at every stage: defining research questions, shaping interventions, and evaluating outcomes.

The co-design approach fosters authentic partnership and inclusivity. It creates spaces where older adults can share their health journeys, challenges with technology, and personal values and preferences. This collaborative method moves beyond data collection; it prioritizes and integrates lived experience as a critical form of evidence.

By selecting co-design, we not only create more effective and relevant research outcomes but also support the iterative, stakeholder-driven cycles that are essential to Learning Health Systems. Their insights help guide healthcare professional training and systems reform, fostering services that are more empathetic, accessible, and aligned with older adults' needs.

Advancing Health Equity Through Voice and Partnership

In alignment with the equity principles emphasized throughout our course, including human-centered, equity-centered, liberatory, and intersectional approaches, co-design empowers older adults as essential collaborators, addressing structural inequities that have historically marginalized their voices in healthcare research and policy.

We would invite older adults to share their experiences and call on researchers and health system leaders to create inclusive research environments that center these voices. Together, we could transform healthcare systems into learning environments that are compassionate, equitable, and responsive to the needs of all generations.