How Older Persons and Health Care Professionals Co-designed a Medication Plan Prototype Remotely to Promote Patient...

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Patient Safety
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Medication harm is a significant patient safety concern, often stemming from prescribing or reevaluation.
• Patient involvement in healthcare design, such as co-design, can improve safety.
• Remote co-design approaches gained traction during the COVID-19 pandemic, but best practices remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the application of remote co-design in developing a medication plan prototype.
• To explore participant experiences with remote co-design for patient safety.

Main Methods:

• A case study design was employed with 14 participants in a Swedish healthcare system.
• Quantitative data from questionnaires and workshop timestamps were analyzed using descriptive statistics.
• Qualitative data from workshops, interviews, and open-ended survey responses underwent thematic analysis.

Main Results:

• Participants reported highly positive experiences with the co-design initiative, valuing the balance of expressing wishes and being heard.
• Workshop activities adhered to the planned schedule.
• Key themes included the importance of diverse perspectives, learning through shared experiences, and navigating the digital environment.

Conclusions:

• Remote co-design was perceived as inclusive and facilitated mutual learning.
• The Double Diamond framework proved adaptable to a digital setting, aiding prototype development.
• Attentive management of power dynamics in remote co-design can enhance collaboration between older adults and healthcare professionals to improve patient safety.