INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT #1 --- 1/16/14

TOP IDEA: Lab Results (web: HTML/Java)
Recent research has shown that patients are more compliant with medical advice when they have been involved in the treatment decision, and well informed. Lab results are increasingly becoming a part of that; they can be a huge point of confusion, especially with the spread of complex genetic testing. A program that introduces patients to relevant lab tests, explains how to read the result, and tests the patient’s knowledge would be great. This could be undertaken by making the results more interactive. Lab reports are all very uniform in appearance and include very little in the way of interpretation. They usually just include the results, expecting that the clinician can make the diagnostic link based on the indications on the test requisition form. Creating a web source that adds highlighting to lab results to emphasize the important points of the results, and informational icons to provide information would be good tools to utilize. Patient friendly “micro explanations” would be a good format for the explanations to help the patient gain perspective on the impact of the lab results, especially if a subset of said explanations

Wilcox, L., D. Morris, et al. (2011). Characterizing patient friendly "micro explanations" of
medical events. CHI'2011. Vancouver, BC, Canada,

______

IDEA 2

Environment control and smoking/alcohol cessation (mobile app, web)
I thought of this idea while I was reading a paper on technology supported substance abuse interventions, and how they have greatly increased in popularity recently. The demand for these interventions is very high, often exceeding supply. Of the most relevance to populations we have access to, many people want to curb or stop smoking /drinking, but do not know exactly how to go about it. A large part of the reason for this is the barrage of environmental factors that can a) encourage or discourage the habit, or b) influence the treatment process. Patient retention and patient engagement may also be a problem during the intervention process, with some people in a nearly perpetual state of “trying to quit”. There are also a number of treatment options to navigate, and, although it’s been shown that treatment can be effective if the patient preferences are taken into consideration, those preferences may also be unclear when selecting those options. It would be great to hav