Using Human-Centered Design and Development to Create a Digital Sick Day Medication Guidance Application for People...

Area of Science:

• Digital health interventions
• Patient self-management
• Chronic disease management

Background:

• Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and chronic kidney disease (CKD) are linked to high morbidity and healthcare costs.
• Medications for these conditions can cause complications like hypoglycemia and acute kidney injury during acute illnesses.
• Effective strategies for delivering sick day medication guidance (SDMG) to prevent adverse events are lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To iteratively design and develop a digital prototype user interface (UI) for SDMG delivery.
• To create the PAUSE application for personalized patient self-management of medications during acute illness.
• To reduce emergency visits and hospitalizations by enhancing medication self-management.

Main Methods:

• A human-centered design (HCD) approach was employed, involving iterative heuristic evaluation and usability testing.
• Prototype revisions were based on established UI criteria and subjective patient feedback.
• Data analysis was conducted deductively and pragmatically to inform rapid iterations.

Main Results:

• A total of 21 design issues were identified via heuristic evaluation and 44 via usability testing.
• The PAUSE UI prototype was iteratively revised by the development team.
• The final design includes user flows and reminders for pausing medications during acute illness.

Conclusions:

• An iterative HCD approach successfully produced a refined SDMG self-management prototype app.
• The PAUSE app is designed for patients with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and CKD.
• Further research is required to evaluate the app's effectiveness and integration into chronic disease care.