Design and introduction of a quality of life assessment and practice support system: perspectives from palliative care settings

Background: Quality of life (QOL) assessment instruments, including patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and patient-reported experience measures (PREMs), are increasingly promoted as a means of enabling clinicians to enhance person-centered care. However, integration of these instruments into palliative care clinical practice has been inconsistent. This study focused on the design of an electronic Quality of Life and Practice Support System (QPSS) prototype and its initial use in palliative inpatient and home care settings. Our objectives were to ascertain desired features of a QPSS prototype and the experiences of clinicians, patients, and family caregivers in regard to the initial introduction of a QPSS in palliative care, interpreting them in context. Methods: We applied an integrated knowledge translation approach in two stages by engaging a total of 71 clinicians, 18 patients, and 17 family caregivers in palliative inpatient and home care settings. Data for Stage I were collected via 12 focus groups with clinicians to ascertain desirable features of a QPSS. Stage II involved 5 focus groups and 24 interviews with clinicians and 35 interviews with patients or family caregivers during initial implementation of a QPSS. The focus groups and interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using the qualitative methodology of interpretive description. Results: Desirable features focused on hardware (lightweight, durable, and easy to disinfect), software (simple, user-friendly interface, multi-linguistic, integration with e-health systems), and choice of assessment instruments that would facilitate a holistic assessment. Although patient and family caregiver participants were predominantly enthusiastic, clinicians expressed a mixture of enthusiasm, receptivity, and concern regarding the use of a QPSS. The analyses revealed important contextual considerations, including: (a) logistical, technical, and aesthetic considerations regarding the QPSS as a technology, (b) diversity in knowledge, skills, and attitudes of clinicians, patients, and family caregivers regarding the integration of electronic QOL assessments in care, and (c) the need to understand organizational context and priorities in using QOL assessment data. Conclusion: The process of designing and integrating a QPSS in palliative care for patients with life-limiting conditions and their family caregivers is complex and requires extensive consultation with clinicians, administrators, patients, and family caregivers to inform successful implementation

My Crohn’s disease on real-time information - User experience improvement through cross-platform applications

Reducing hospital institutionalization of citizen with chronic diseases is a major priority of western countries priorities. The more complex the health condition, the harder it is to coordinate clinical care. To improve the disease management and control, most patients need to use mobile applications that are available in online stores or web services because of the difficulty that a personal mobile phone has to get real time access to clinical data outside of a hospital. In terms of IBD - Inflammatory Bowel Disease - existing mobile phone solutions are very complex, because visually the interfaces communicates with the user through inadequate use of symbols in clinical features, which are inconsistent and have poor legibility. They also presents a lack of visual optimization between multiplatform systems. This increases the user's learning curve in terms of how to interpret and interact with these systems, generating an opportunity for these patients with abilities to innovate through the creation and development of solutions that solve their own problems related to the management and coordination of the disease. This thesis aims to analysis IBD patients behaviour related to disease management, identify the type of problems, both functional and communication, which occur in existing IBD m-Health and e-Health systems, and introduces two topics – communication and design studies – in the "User Innovator" model of Von Hippel (1976) which consists of users, that are, for example, patients with chronic diseases, and who innovate by creating solutions to solve personal problems because of unfavourable healthcare conditions. To validate in the design process the three perspectives – design, innovation and patient – were considered, and the framework “Human-social Interaction Model for e-Health Interfaces” was created, enabling a sustainable approach to research, with inputs from personal experience being used, introducing relevant feedback for the final goal of the preliminary studies, when creating the interface for mobile phone application particularly for Crohn’s disease, one of the IBD, with a new healthcare user experience. To reach the objective, a set of studies were conducted that were divided into two stages. The first, a literature review of the relationship between semiotics and interactive communication; the meaning of symbolic representation in interactive projects; new design research guidelines that define interfaces and features and that are more approachable for users; user perspectives towards technology for health supporting and controlling; the design and communication space on technological projects; the challenge for users/ patients who try to create systems to solve personal problems. The second part, presents the practical research that includes a survey of 279 participants with IBD; the empirical analysis of six case studies – mobile applications and multiplatform: context, features, design principles lifting, and usability testing A/B with the design features and principles of design on two of the six systems being compared. The results from the thesis challenge the concepts of mobile interface usability in health, providing users with a structured interpretation of medical information design and a guideline for designers with chronic diseases that would like to create solutions to monitor health problems.Reduzir a institucionalização hospitalar de cidadãos com doenças crónicas é uma das prioridades para os países ocidentais. Quanto maior for a complexidade das condições de saúde, mais difícil se torna a coordenação dos cuidados clínicos. Para melhorar o controle e a gestão da doença, a maioria destes pacientes recorre às aplicações para telemóvel disponíveis em lojas online e aos serviços na web pois, é difícil obter permissão para aceder a dados clínicos em tempo real no telemóvel pessoal a partir do hospital. No contexto da DII – Doença Inflamatória do Intestino – as soluções existentes apresentam níveis de complexidade visual elevados pois, a interface comunica com o utilizador através de símbolos clínicos inadequados em funcionalidades convencionais – fraca legibilidade e inconsistência; Apresenta também, fraca coerência visual entre sistemas multiplataforma. Estes cenários promovem no utilizador, um aumento da curva de aprendizagem relativamente à forma como estes interagem com os sistemas criando assim, uma abertura para o desenvolvimento de soluções pelos que têm habilidade para inovar através da criação e desenvolvimento de sistemas que resolvem os seus problemas com a gestão e coordenação da doença. Esta tese tem como objetivo analisar o comportamento dos pacientes com DII relativamente à gestão da sua doença. Identificar que tipo de problemas – funcionais e de comunicação – existem nas soluções atuais para telemóvel e web no contexto da DII, introduzindo novos temas – estudos em comunicação e design – no modelo "User Innovator" de Von Hippel (1976) que consiste em, utilizadores, como por exemplo, pacientes com doenças crónicas, que inovam ao criarem soluções para resolver os problemas pessoais, tais como, condições de saúde adversas. Para validar no processo de design a integração das três áreas – design, inovação e paciente – criamos a framework “Human-social Interaction Model for e-Health Interfaces” que nos permitiu uma abordagem sustentável à investigação, quando foram aplicados inputs provenientes de experiência pessoal das três perspectivas introduzindo feedback relevante para o objetivo final dos estudos preliminares, também quando criada a interface para dispositivos móveis focada na doença de Crohn, uma das DII, com uma nova experiência de utilizador na área da saúde. Para atingir o objectivo, realizou-se um conjunto de estudos que se encontram divididos em dois momentos: o primeiro, com revisão de literatura sobre a relação da semiótica com a comunicação interativa; o significado da representação simbólica em projetos interativos; as novas linhas de reflexão do Design que definem interfaces e funcionalidades mais próximas do utilizador; a perspectiva dos utilizadores perante a tecnologia como meio de suporte e controle da saúde; o espaço do design e da comunicação em projetos tecnológicos; o desafio para utilizadores/ pacientes que tentam criar sistemas para solucionar problemas pessoais. A segunda parte apresenta a investigação de campo com, um inquérito a 279 participantes com DII; análise empírica de seis casos de estudo – aplicações para telemóvel e multiplataforma: contexto, funcionalidades, levantamento de princípios do design, e testes de usabilidade A/B onde comparamos em dois dos seis sistemas, a articulação entre as funcionalidades e os princípios do design. Os resultados obtidos desafiam a usabilidade das interfaces para telemóvel no contexto da saúde, proporcionando aos utilizadores uma interpretação mais coerente do ponto de vista formal do design de informação médica e um caminho para designers com doenças crónicas que pretendem criar soluções para resolver problemas de monotorização da saúde

MensSana: Design of a mental well-being self-report interface for shop floor workers

A ascensão da Indústria 4.0 trouxe consigo novas tecnologias e oportunidades que estão a mudar a natureza do trabalho, especialmente em ambientes de chão de fábrica. No entanto, essas mudanças também trouxeram novos desafios para os trabalhadores, incluindo desafios na sua saúde mental. Estes trabalhadores, em particular, enfrentam no seu trabalho estressores físicos e mentais que podem afetar seu bem-estar geral, apesar dos esforços da Indústria 4.0. O conceito de Operador 4.0 na Indústria 4.0 introduz muitos operadores, como o Operador Saudável, que enfatiza a centralidade no ser humano e visa melhorar a eficiência e o bem-estar do trabalhador por meio de tecnologias avançadas e análise de dados. Esta tese propõe o desenvolvimento de uma ferramenta protótipo, co-criada e validada no contexto da Indústria 4.0 para medir métricas do trabalhador e do local de trabalho, criando uma imagem holística do trabalhador, sua competência e bem-estar, alinhado ao conceito de um trabalhador "mais saudável" de Romero et al. Essas informações são devolvidas ao trabalhador e apresentadas de maneira legível e compreensível para identificar tendências e informar decisões futuras relacionadas ao trabalho e bem-estar.The rise of Industry 4.0 has brought about new technologies and opportunities that are changing the nature of work, particularly in factory floor settings. However, these changes have also brought about new challenges for workers, including mental health issues. Shop floor workers, in particular, face physical and mental stressors in their work that can impact their overall well-being, despite Industry 4.0 efforts. The Operator 4.0 concept in Industry 4.0 introduces a lot of operators like the Healthy Operator that emphasises human-centricity and aims to improve worker efficiency and well-being through advanced technologies and data analytics. This thesis proposes the development of a prototype tool co-created and validated in the context of Industry 4.0 to measure metrics from the worker and the workplace, creating a holistic picture of the worker, their competence and well-being in line with Romero's et al. concept of a "healthier" worker. This information is returned to the worker and presented in a readable and understandable manner to identify trends and inform future decisions concerning their work and well-being

Foregrounding accessibility for user experience design

textI am interested in creating generative tools and techniques for designing accessible user experiences for end users. As a user experience designer, I am working on embracing the web accessibility standards and guidelines and including them from the beginning of the User Experience (UX) design process. My projects are directed at facilitating design students and professionals to understand two things: that the broad concept of web accessibility is important, and how they can embed web accessibility into the UX design process at a very early stage. To do this, I used different media (website, posters and videos etc.) to create awareness and educate designers in an interesting, simple and engaging way. In this report, I will discuss the definition and role of accessible design, identify limitations in existing tools and methods, and demonstrate how future designers might research, prototype, analyze, and implement their designs for all users.Desig

Feel My Pain: Design and Evaluation of Painpad, a Tangible Device for Supporting Inpatient Self-Logging of Pain

Monitoring patients' pain is a critical issue for clinical caregivers, particularly among staff responsible for providing analgesic relief. However, collecting regularly scheduled pain readings from patients can be difficult and time-consuming for clinicians. In this paper we present Painpad, a tangible device that was developed to allow patients to engage in self-logging of their pain. We report findings from two hospital-based field studies in which Painpad was deployed to a total of 78 inpatients recovering from ambulatory surgery. We find that Painpad results in improved frequency and compliance with pain logging, and that self-logged scores may be more faithful to patients' experienced pain than corresponding scores reported to nurses. We also show that older adults may prefer tangible interfaces over tablet-based alternatives for reporting their pain, and we contribute design lessons for pain logging devices intended for use in hospital settings

Design of Equipment Rack with TRIZ Method to Reduce Searching Time in Change Over Activity (Case Study : PT. Jans2en Indonesia)

Janssen is a manufacturing plant that works in furniture assembly. Component shortages often occurs, it will cause the increase of work in process (WIP) in assembly section. In previous studies, we analyze the root causes with FMEA and then it is resulted that router section is the constraint of the system. There are many non value added activities such as searching and transportation caused by a messy condition of work places and the devices that aren’t put in the right place. The impact is that the time allocated for every change over is higher than before. There are many components that are worked by the router section, so improvements are needed to minimize changes in over time. 5S method and the use of a new design of rack by TRIZ method are suggested for fixing the conditions of work environment. It is expected to eliminate non value added activities and changes in over time. Result shows that we can reduce non value activities in change over of regular components up to 41% and the elimination of this time is 41,6%. The non value activities in changeover of new items is 36,6% and this elimination of time is 53,3%. Key word : change over, kaizen, design, TRIZ metho