Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Jun 8, 2023
Date Accepted: Jul 20, 2023
Exploring Patient Needs and Designing Concepts for Digitally Supported Health Solutions in Type 2 Diabetes: A Co-Creation Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Successful self-management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is often a process spanning decades of which the majority is spent away from primary care. However, despite the availability of technical innovation, the uptake of digital interventions remains low. One reason that has been reported is that often digital interventions focus purely on clinical factors which may not align with the patient’s perspective.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to develop digital intervention solutions addressing the needs of T2DM patients as designed from the user’s perspective. The aim was to address the patients’ expressed real-world needs by having the users themselves choose the scope and format of solutions.
Methods:
A total of three co-creation workshops were conducted with 20 Non-Insulin Treated (NIT) Persons with Diabetes (PwD) and 11 stakeholders, including user experience designers, researchers, and a diabetes nurse, across workshops. Following these workshops, high-fidelity interactive prototypes were developed, and 7 formative usability tests were conducted.
Results:
The workshops resulted in a detailed exploration and understanding of 6 themes based on PwD own experiences: diabetes care, diabetes knowledge, glucose monitoring, diet, physical activity, and social aspects of diabetes. Two prototypes were developed by participants to address a variety of their needs over time. These were an activity-based Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) app and an online guide to diabetes. Both prototypes emphasize structured self-measurements of blood glucose through different phases of use and support self-exploration.
Conclusions:
Our results indicate the needs of PwD differ between individuals and change over time, shaped by their T2DM experiences. There is therefore a need for solutions that can be personalized to support self-exploration, personal preference in long-term management, and changing needs over time. Despite individuals experiencing different journeys with diabetes, users perceive self-measurement of blood glucose as a universally useful tool to empower everyday decision-making.
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© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.