An Interface for IoT: Feeding Back Health-Related Data to Parkinson’s Disease Patients

Abstract

This paper presents a user-centered design (UCD) process of an interface for Parkinson's disease (PD) patients for helping them to better manage their symptoms. The interface is designed to visualize symptom and medication information, collected by an Internet of Things (IoT)-based system, which will consist of a smartphone, electronic dosing device, wrist sensor and a bed sensor. In our work, the focus is on measuring data related to some of the main health-related quality of life aspects such as motor function, sleep, medication compliance, meal intake timing in relation to medication intake, and physical exercise. A mock-up demonstrator for the interface was developed using UCD methodology in collaboration with PD patients. The research work was performed as an iterative design and evaluation process based on interviews and observations with 11 PD patients. Additional usability evaluations were conducted with three information visualization experts. Contributions include a list of requirements for the interface, results evaluating the performance of the patients when using the demonstrator during task-based evaluation sessions as well as opinions of the experts. The list of requirements included ability of the patients to track an ideal day, so they could repeat certain activities in the future as well as determine how the scores are related to each other. The patients found the visualizations as clear and easy to understand and could successfully perform the tasks. The evaluation with experts showed that the visualizations are in line with the current standards and guidelines for the intended group of users. In conclusion, the results from this work indicate that the proposed system can be considered as a tool for assisting patients in better management of the disease by giving them insights on their own aggregated symptom and medication information. However, the actual effects of providing such feedback to patients on their health-related quality of life should be investigated in a clinical trial.

It Takes Two to Tango: Merging Science and Creativity to Support Continued Innovation in the IoT Domain

“…The process of developing a smart parking system by including the relevant users or stakeholder and the positive outcome of the project highlight that participatory-and user centred design methodologies are invaluable for the overall design process but in particular the early stages of project development. This postulation is supported through diverse academic literature [10,12]. Consistency, intuitive design and good, logical mapping are just some of the cornerstones for the successful uptake of any design as illustrated by Don Norman in his book "The Design of Everyday Things" [21].…”

“…For example, in a system developed for Parkinson's disease, patients it was found that 70% of users reacted positively to a IoT-based system prototype, (connected devices such as a wrist sensor, smartphone, bed sensor and an electronic dosing device). Positive impact of the system is due to including user in application/system development [12]. It was found that challenge of communication has been one of major component for hindering implementation of UX in the IoT domain.…”

Special Issue: Empowering eHealth with Smart Internet of Things (IoT) Medical Devices

“…Six papers have been selected in this special issue that respond to questions raised [1][2][3][4][5][6]. The first paper, entitled "Design, Fabrication, and Testing of an Internet Connected Intravenous Drip Monitoring Device" submitted by researchers from German universities, presents a monitoring system retro-fittable for existing Intravenous (IV) infusion setup that leverages human based estimations of time required by an IV bottle to empty, which makes the IV therapy vulnerable to human error [1].…”

“…Paper 3 is entitled "An Interface for IoT: Feeding Back Health-Related Data to Parkinson's disease Patients" and submitted by authors from Sweden. It presents a user-centered design (UCD) process of an interface for Parkinson's disease (PD) patients to help them better manage their symptoms [3]. The system aims to provide useful information to patients related to their symptom and medication.…”

“…This information is collected from different connected wearable devices (wrist sensors, smartphone) and IoT devices (electronic dosing device, bed sensor) deployed in their homes. Data related to some of the main health-related quality of life aspects such as motor function, sleep, medication compliance, meal intake timing in relation to medication intake, and physical exercise are collected using the connected devices [3]. The results from this work indicate that the proposed system can be considered as a tool for assisting patients in better management of the disease by giving them insights into their own aggregated symptoms and medication information which provides responses to questions Q1-4.…”