ONParkinson – Innovative mHealth to support the triad: patient, carer and health professional

Trabalho apresentado no 6th EAI International Symposium on Pervasive Computing Paradigms for Mental Health, 28-30 novembro 2016, Barcelona, EspanhaThe ONParkinson mHealth platform aims to empower an integrated assistance to support end-users of the triad “people with Parkinson’s Disease, their carers and health professionals”, promoting the self-management in Parkinson’s disease. Therefore, ONParkinson is expected to optimize the communication between the triad users, helping them find relevant knowledge to support their clinical issues, as well as allowing the monitoring of patients` daily routine and the recommendation for daily exercises. This mHealth solution was created and materialized after an initial study of the end-users’ needs. This paper presents the usability study of the first version of the ONParkinson prototype. According to the usability tests’ findings, ONParkinson was perceived by the triad users as easy to use, with functionalities well integrated, useful and attractive. Some recommendations were suggested to enhance its usability, users’ satisfaction and continuance intentions

Management of social isolation and loneliness in Parkinson’s disease: Design principles

Persons with Parkinson’s disease (PwPs) may have difficulty participating in social activities due to motor and non-motor symptoms that may lead to social isolation and loneliness. This paper addresses how to manage social isolation and loneliness among PwPs using digital solutions. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have the potential to address social isolation and loneliness, but there are no current solutions that specifically target these issues among PwPs. In this paper, we present an ongoing project based on design science research (DSR) combined with a user-centered approach to identify challenges, requirements, and design objectives. The empirical work includes data from interviews and focus groups with PwPs and healthcare professionals. Based on the empirical material, we formulated design principles on identified challenges and requirements, which were instantiated into a high-fidelity prototype. This initial cycle serves as a foundation for ongoing improvements and evaluations in a continuous DSR process

Designing an Artifact to Empower Chronic Patients for Monitoring Health During a Pandemic: A COVID-19 Screening App

Chronic diseases have been declared an invisible epidemic by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2005). Over the past fifty years, the prevalence of chronic conditions has increased, leading to the disease burden caused by cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and mental and substance use disorders (DOH, 2021). Chronic patients need to reimagine how they will empower themselves to effectively manage and monitor their health and wellbeing in a COVID-19 era when frequent in-person health care visits will no longer be feasible. In this study, we propose the dimensions for the design of a mobile-based application that will aid chronic patients and end-users in self-managing and monitoring their health during the pandemic era. Based on an empirical investigation involving pharmacists and researchers, we designed and developed a prototype capable of empowering chronic patients. This study particularly focuses on how technological interventions can help chronic patients self-manage and monitor their health and well-being related to COVID-19 where the user expectations are met with less attrition rates

Enabling the Participation of People with Parkinson's and Their Caregivers in Co-Inquiry around Collectivist Health Technologies

While user participation is central to HCI, co-inquiry takes this further by having participants direct and control research from conceptualisation to completion. We describe a co-inquiry, conducted over 16 months with a Parkinson's support group. We explored how the participation of members might be enabled across multiple stages of a research project, from the generation of research questions to the development of a prototype. Participants directed the research into developing alternative modes of information provision, resulting in ‘Parkinson’s Radio’ — a collectivist health information service produced and edited by members of the support group. We reflect on how we supported participation at different stages of the project and the successes and challenges faced by the team. We contribute insights into the design of collectivist health technologies for this group, and discuss opportunities and tensions for conducting co-inquiry in HCI research

Future Opportunities for IoT to Support People with Parkinson’s

Recent years have seen an explosion of internet of things (IoT) technologies being released to the market. There has also been an emerging interest in the potentials of IoT devices to support people with chronic health conditions. In this paper, we describe the results of engagements to scope the future potentials of IoT for supporting people with Parkinson’s. We ran a 2-day multi-disciplinary event with professionals with expertise in Parkinson’s and IoT, to explore the opportunities, challenges and benefits. We then ran 4 workshops, engaging 13 people with Parkinson’s and caregivers, to scope out the needs, values and desires that the community has for utilizing IoT to monitor their symptoms. This work contributes a set of considerations for future IoT solutions that might support people with Parkinson’s in better understanding their condition, through the provision of objective measurements that correspond to their, currently unmeasured, subjective experiences

User-centred design of a mobile self-management solution for parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a highly prevalent and disabling condition, requiring frequent medication adjustments. In parallel, non-adherence to medical treatment might lead to severe consequences. Therefore, a solution to monitor PD symptoms, allowing neurologists to make informed decisions about medication adjustments, and one which could promote medical treatment adherence would be beneficial for both the patient and the medical doctor. In this paper we present the rationale and user-centred process for the design of four smartphone applications for the self-management of PD. We present the methods for evaluation and the results of usability tests. The results show that user-centred methods were efficient and that people with PD were able to achieve high task completion rates on usability tests with three of the applications for PD self-management. Future work should focus on detailed improvement of touch screen sensitivity to optimize error prevention