The Heart Companion: : Designing an empowering application for heart failure patients

Abstract: Healthcare practices are changing as focus shifts fromtreating acute illnesses to chronic diseases. Theresponsibility of managing the treatment has shifted fromhealthcare providers to the individual in a higher degree. Toachieve good treatment the patients need to be empoweredso that they understand their condition and can makeinformed choices throughout their self-care. A researchthrough design approach was used to investigate how todesign a personalized empowering application for heartfailure patients. Aside from information relating to thecondition, the themes of physical activity, dieting and socialconnectedness were identified as central to address for theempowerment of this group. Patients, partners andhealthcare providers contributed with different perspectivesthroughout the design process. As a result five personas,representing potential users, were developed. Based on thepersonas and knowledge of the domain, user scenarios incurrent- and preferred state were constructed in order toguide the design of the empowering application called ‘TheHeart Companion’. It is a tablet application catering to thedifferent needs of the personas that also addresses the threethemes relevant for empowerment. The purpose of theapplication is to facilitate better understanding, a feeling ofsafety and a more active empowered life for the patient.The application enables personalization of the content byproviding bookmarking and addresses empowerment ofphysical activity by enabling various guided exercisesessions, personalized feedback, the possibility of reflectionand construction of personalized exercise sessions.