User Requirements for Comanaged Digital Health and Care: Review

Area of Science:

• Digital Health and Care
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Participatory Design

Background:

• The sustainability of health and social care necessitates a shift towards community-based, person-centered, integrated, and preventive models.
• Digital tools are crucial for this transition but must encompass broader personal, social, and environmental needs beyond a purely clinical focus.
• Existing literature often lacks a whole-system or whole-of-life perspective in digital health and care design.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify recurring user requirements and themes for co-managed digital health and care services.
• To facilitate a shift from system-led, condition-specific approaches to person-centric, whole-of-life health and care models.
• To inform the design and delivery of digital health and care services.

Main Methods:

• Employed participatory design as the core methodological approach.
• Conducted a structured review of co-design projects within a digital health and care program.
• Utilized a selection framework to identify eligible projects for user requirement derivation.

Main Results:

• Identified 14 common user requirements from a review of co-design projects.
• Found overlapping needs between citizens and care professionals regarding data co-management for improved outcomes.
• Highlighted consensus on personal health storytelling, sharing care experiences, personalized guidance, and improved dialogue, while noting gaps in group engagement and siloed organizational structures.

Conclusions:

• Recommends privacy-preserving digital infrastructure empowering citizens as active partners in managing their health data and care.
• Advocates for incorporating broader user requirement contexts into the development of new digital services.
• Stresses the need for further research into trust frameworks for citizen data co-management across diverse formal and informal actors.