Home Healthcare Medicinal Compliance

In medicine, compliance  describes the degree to which a patient correctly follows medical advice, most commonly, it refers to adherence to the timely and accurate taking of medication or drugs and can have a very significant effect on treatment effectiveness. Compliance with medication regimes can be difficult for many people undergoing care support and a major challenge for pharmaceutical and medical companies and organisations. Novartis sought help from PDR in the understanding and issues around medicinal compliance at home and the development of systems to help support this.

In a non clinical environment the potential risks driven by changes in context, users and the wider environment is complex with a high degree of variability. It was crucial for the design teams to understand the motivations and lifestyle choices and the particular behaviours and associated hazards and potential harms that could occur in the context of use.

A broad range of methods were used including user interviews, observational and behavioural analysis, stakeholder analysis, persona creation and journey mapping. Primary research activity sat alongside comprehensive secondary research to provide input into design activity.

Design solutions were intrinsically linked to the user centred research work undertaken with prospective users of the product. The UCD groups specialist skill set in rapid interactive prototyping allowed the concepts to be developed into working prototypes that allowed for both physical and digital elements to be tested and developed with users.

 The end result was a concept informed by the understanding of lifestyles and users perceptions of their medication and the device itself.