Pressure point: Thinking beyond functionality for home medtech uptake
Oscar Daws, co-founder and managing director, Tone Product Design looks at the role of product design in advancing home healthcare take-up and adherence and what it means for medtech.
According to The NHS Long Term Plan: “When ill, people will be increasingly cared for in their own home, with the option for their physiology to be effortlessly monitored by wearable devices. People will be helped to stay well, to recognise important symptoms early, and to manage their own health, guided by digital tools.”
We all know the NHS has experienced relentless pressure over the past two years. November 2021, for example, saw the busiest month on record for A&E, with more than two million patients requiring attention at emergency departments and treatment centres. That was up half a million on the same time the previous year. Add to that the backlog of patients on waiting lists and the needs of an ageing population and it’s clear that the NHS must look to new ways to manage its resources.
The good news is that advances in home healthcare technology have opened up a host of opportunities, and in many cases can provide better care. (A report by the AJMC noted that treatment at home has been shown to be faster and more effective).
Whether it’s monitoring sleep or medicine compliance, helping with post-operative physiotherapy or dementia, or assisting an ageing population to remain healthy and independent for longer, there are key benefits to encouraging people to manage their health at home and avoid the trip to hospital.
Home is usually a safe, relaxing space that removes the fear of a hospital setting, which for many will have been exacerbated by the pandemic. People can enjoy the comforts and amenities that they’re used to, while avoiding the upset of unfamiliar surroundings. Leveraging the power of the home can also benefit clinical trials. An important point raised at GIANT Health 2021 was one of simple logistics. It can be both expensive and time consuming to travel to a hospital or clinic, and many prefer a hybrid approach. Allowing people to do more from home makes it easier for them to access the care they need.
But we must remember, if we’re to capitalise on medtech advances and encourage adoption and adherence among patients in the home, devices must be designed with the utmost respect for people’s home environments and emotional needs, as well as their physical ones. Nobody wants their sanctuary to look like a hospital, or to be embarrassed when visitors pop by. In a medical facility you can get away with designing for function alone. At home, that’s not good enough.
There’s evidence that some medical companies are beginning to prioritise this. Luas Diagnostics, for example, understood the need for discretion when designing its patient-centric drug-management system. The device is small enough to fit into a case and be concealed in a drawer. The team knew that it was unlikely anyone would want to have the device displayed on a surface, where friends and family might ask questions.
Ensuring a ‘human’ response
Many of us, whether we suffer from a particular condition or not, are now used to monitoring our health passively via wearable devices such as smartwatches (heart rate, blood pressure, sleep patterns, etc). But as the surge in medtech continues, so will the demands placed on end-users. And with no healthcare professional (HCP) to hand in many cases, patients will increasingly be asked to deal with diagnosis and illness management themselves.
We mustn’t ignore the psychological and physical challenges that all this poses for end-users. A device might be complicated to use, for instance, and people may fear using it incorrectly. Or they could simply be embarrassed to have it on show in their homes. Patients need to be motivated and engaged and understand the value of what they are being asked to do. This is especially true of rehabilitation and chronic therapies, which can require long-term management. Well-considered design can go a long way to improve adherence, alleviate emotional issues and boost the overall user experience.
Taking a more patient-centric approach to the design of every touchpoint enables smoother remote patient monitoring and care. Clear instructions can reduce the anxiety that may arise when there’s no HCP present. Consumer-style packaging can guide patients through complex set-ups and onboarding. The pack for Proteus, an ingestible sensor that allows HCPs to monitor drug compliance remotely, was designed to make it easier for patients to set up at home, taking the fear out of ‘getting it wrong.’ This was achieved with a thoroughly considered ‘step by step’ unboxing experience and simple, compelling content to reduce confusion.
Home is where the heart is
Most patients are not medical experts, and designs must be rigorously tested at early concept stage to uncover usability or contextual issues before they become baked into the engineering of the product. But while product usability and efficacy will always be paramount, of course, as we shift focus from hospital care to homecare, so product designers and medical device developers will need to give much more thought to how their products affect people’s mental wellbeing.
The home has amazing potential as a place to improve health and deliver therapies, but it’s not enough to simply transplant hospital-style equipment into houses. If we’re to maximise that potential, we need to accept that how people feel in their own homes affects the quality of their lives. Our homes are where we take refuge from the rest of the world, where we raise our families and socialise with our friends. Very few of the objects that we buy for them are purchased with only functionality in mind. The same consideration should be given to homecare medical technology.