Creating a Smartphone App for Caregivers of Children With Atopic Dermatitis With Caregivers, Health Care Professionals, and Digital Health Experts: Participatory Co-Design

Abstract

Background Smartphone apps could support patients and caregivers in disease self-management. However, as patients’ experiences and needs might not always align with clinical judgments, the eliciting and engaging of perspectives of all stakeholders in the smartphone app design process is of paramount importance. Objective The aims of this study are to better understand the needs of and challenges facing caregivers and health care professionals (HCPs) who care for children with atopic dermatitis (AD) and to explore the desirable features and content of a smartphone app that would support AD self-management. Methods This study adopted a qualitative participatory co-design methodology involving 3 focus group discussions: workshop one focused on caregivers; workshop two engaged with HCPs; and in the last workshop, caregivers and digital health experts were asked to design the wireframe prototype. The participants completed a sociodemographic questionnaire, a technology acceptance questionnaire, and a workshop evaluation form. Results Twelve caregivers participated in the first workshop, and 10 HCPs participated in the second workshop. Eight caregivers and 4 digital health experts attended the third workshop. Three superordinate themes that reflected caregivers’ and HCPs’ challenges and needs were identified: empowerment by education, confusion over treatment, and emotional impact. Workshop participants also raised a series of suggestions on the features and contents of the AD self-management app, which informed the last co-design workshop, and described their needs and challenges. In the last workshop, the participants developed a wireframe prototype of the app following the identified requirements and recommendations. Conclusions The co-design approach was found to be a successful way of engaging with the participants, as it allowed them to express their creativity and helped us to articulate the root of the clinical problems. The co-design workshop was successful in creating and generating new ideas and solutions for smartphone app development.

A Novel Mobile App (“CareFit”) to Support Informal Caregivers to Undertake Regular Physical Activity From Home During and Beyond COVID-19 Restrictions: Co-design and Prototype Development Study

“…The use of co-design in caregiver research is growing and aligns well with other emerging work. Our strategy was to equip our participants with a variety of different stakeholder viewpoints through discussion before completing questionnaires [ 32 ]. Such co-design was successfully used previously by Xu et al [ 32 ] when designing an app for caregivers of children with atopic dermatitis to develop functionalities such as login, disease diary, journal, chatbot, forum, and disease monitor.…”

“…Our strategy was to equip our participants with a variety of different stakeholder viewpoints through discussion before completing questionnaires [ 32 ]. Such co-design was successfully used previously by Xu et al [ 32 ] when designing an app for caregivers of children with atopic dermatitis to develop functionalities such as login, disease diary, journal, chatbot, forum, and disease monitor. As part of this work, participants helped us to identify several different barriers and enablers to physical activity from the home, including lack of time, finding a way to recognize efforts, and being able to conduct activities safely.…”

User innovation rings the bell for new horizons in e-health: a bibliometric analysis

“…Empowering users has radically changed the way user and customer value is created and transferred; therefore, many organizations have consequently set out business concepts based on the recognition of these changes and the opportunities they bring about. By adopting technology solutions, health organizations and clinical services have started to empower users in contexts such as self-management treatments (Goldchmit et al, 2021), healthcare education (Xu et al, 2020), care for vulnerable users (Gill et al, 2019) and developing peer-to-peer online communities (Amann and Rubinelli, 2017). Chen et al (2014) suggest that e-health as a service innovation needs to consider a wide variety of users, including patients, service recipients and service providers, when it comes to the formation of commercially viable business concepts.…”

Co-designing a Community Pharmacy Pharmacogenomics Testing Service In The UK

“…This focus group study is part of a qualitative participatory co-design process. Co-design methodology in healthcare research has been found to engage with all the participants, allowing them to "express their creativity and … to articulate the root of the clinical problems" (17). It can help to identify, "tension between the professional agenda driven primarily by cost-effectiveness and the patient agenda that prioritises the process of care" (18).…”