Designing Digital Health_
Today I read an article outlining the lessons people have learned from designing digital health for patients, with patients.
Why its so difficult to design for healthcare_
There is some what of a friction between people and technology. First of all, the healthcare industry is highly regulated, complex ecosystem with so many different moving parts which rarely communicate effectively. You have to take into consideration several things; Patient’s needs and frustrations but also considering the interests and motivations of players within the industry such as physicians, insurance companies and governments. Introducing and motivating a new routine within the healthcare is not an easy task! We as designers need understand digital behavioural design and psychological models to fully execute a project like this.
According to the CGG. chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypotension or mental illness cause significant health and economic costs. It is important for patients to monitor their illness and digital products are the perfect solution for this. Disease management apps have big potential to increase the amount of people managing their own health. They have yet to reach their full potential but are so far working!
Problems faced_
Although management apps are useful in some cases, Through user field research, and secondary research, we learn that people’s emotional and functional barriers restrain them from proactively managing their health.
Patient-provider dynamic is the changing, currently patients attend their GP and get seen to but as technology evolves, there is more of an equal partnership between patients and doctors. Technology is being used to facilitate a conversation between patients and their doctor which could lead most of it online and digital.
However there are trust issues with online services and information privacy is currently a big concern. People are afraid of putting up all of their information onto a digital platform as there is fear of it being used or exploited.
Another reason there is difficultly changing the healthcare service to digital is because people don’t believe in ‘digital magic’. There is concern about the inaccuracy of digital tools for health. Take the IWatch activity tool for example. I have the series 3 watch and their heart rate monitor is very inaccurate as well as their calories burned monitor. This can only improve with new technology but for the meantime, it is leaving people wary about the whole thing.
Another big thing about health care is tone of voice, by communicating with a positive tone, patients could subconsciously feel more hopeful about the outcome of their treatment. One digital way around this is to add prompts (”you’re doing great, keep it up!, keep going!”) its all about controlling the patients emotions and making them aware that everything will be alright.
Measuring how good a product or service will be for the health industry can be clearly shown ‘time saved’. Meaning the less time the patient has to deal with their health issue, the more effective and successful the product or service is. Disease management is not something patients choose or want its about what they most do daily. This is why it is important to design with effectiveness and efficiency in mind, keeping a clean feel and clear communications.
I will use what I have learned from this to approach a product and ensure that it is for the user!