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Lessons in Academic-Industry Collaboration During an eHealth Platform Development for Caregivers of Persons Living with Dementia
ABSTRACT
Background:
Developing effective eHealth interventions requires a synthesis of evidence-based clinical content and high-quality user experience (UX) design. Academic research teams, however, often lack internal software engineering capabilities, necessitating partnerships with external technology vendors. Misalignments in terminology, timelines, and development methodologies between these two groups can hinder project success.
Objective:
This paper describes the academic-industry collaboration process used to develop CIRCLE, a web-based psychoeducational intervention for caregivers of people with dementia. Our aim is to discuss how to overcome the barriers of working with industry partners and provide a framework for researchers managing non-academic relationships to ensure clinical fidelity while leveraging industry-standard technology.
Methods:
The development process followed an Agile methodology over a five-month period. The interdisciplinary team consisted of nurse scientists, researchers, content experts, and caregivers (Academic Team) and UX designers and full-stack developers (Industry Vendor). We utilized an iterative co-design process involving the development of user personas, wireframing, and weekly sprint reviews. Key strategies included the creation of a translation matrix to map clinical concepts to technical specifications and the use of rapid prototyping to test content feasibility.
Results:
The collaboration resulted in the successful launch of the CIRCLE platform, an asynchronous learning management system featuring self-paced modules, moderated discussion forums, and resources library. The partnership revealed two primary lessons: (1) the necessity of establishing a shared terminology early in the project and (2) the value of compromise features where clinical ideal states are balanced with technical budget constraints.
Conclusions:
Successful eHealth development requires researchers to move beyond the role of subject matter experts and become active product managers. The collaborative framework presented here offers a roadmap for academic investigators to effectively lead vendor-developed eHealth projects. Clinical Trial: N/A
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Copyright
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