Colloquia

Samenvatting

This study's objective is to explore patients' values regarding Health information exchange (HIE), whereas HIE in this thesis refers to the whole process of patients completing medical surveys prior to their medical intake for surgery and sharing this data with health care providers. Furthermore, this research investigates how design features of such a HIE system could support these identified values and how this could result in a new concept design.

This research used the Value Sensitive Design (VSD) approach in combination with the well-known method of design thinking, whereas design-thinking provided a clear framework that supported a step-by-step process in designing, and VSD used as a supporting method to integrate human values into the design thinking process, in this case, patient's values.

The literature review showed that little was known about patients' values regarding HIE. For this reason, a qualitative study by means of a focus group was carried out to identify fundamental values in relation to HIE. Three fundamental values of patients emerged: autonomy, empathy, and transparency. These values were characterized by design requirements, based on the insights from the focus group and relevant supporting literature to facilitate the translation of patients' values into a future design concept.

These requirements served as input for the next ideation phase, in which ideas were generated through a Co-design session supported by personas and creative brainstorming. The ideas were then expressed in three different concepts, each based on one of the values. The best combination of these three concepts resulted in a final design at a conceptual level, which ten participants then evaluated through end-user interviews. The results obtained served as a basis for discussion and made recommendations for further elaboration of the design.