Project Overview:
Dr.Stopcough is a Chatbot-based Digital Therapeutics for Tuberculosis project I participated in as a design intern at DESIS Lab at Yonsei. I was responsible for User Research, Information Architecture, and Interaction design.
Korea has the highest tuberculosis incidence rate among OECD countries. By developing a chatbot using KakaoTalk, the most actively used messenger app in Korea, we help elderly patients easily access information about tuberculosis and receive real-time counseling. In addition, through chatbots, medication management and side effects management in tuberculosis treatment are supported through reminders and encouragement.
Role
In-depth Interview Shadowing
Product Management UX Writing
Interaction Design
User Test
Director
Prof. Joonsang Baek DESIS Lab at Yosei Prof. Youngmok Park Yonsei University College of Medicine, Severance Hospital
Duration
2022 Mar - 2023 Feb
Tools
Figma
Kakaotalk
Service Map
Service Design Process
Background
Korea is ranked at No.1 in TB incidence, prevalence and mortality among the 34 OECD countries.
The incidence and mortality rates of tuberculosis (TB) in the Republic of Korea are 80 and 5.2 per 100,000 people, respectively, which are the highest among the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Especially, the incidence of TB among elderly individuals remains high, and it is even increasing compared to that in the past 10 years. Older individuals account for 42% of all TB cases and 82% of TB-related deaths.
Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency
The pandemic has forced the digital health industry to radically change the way they operate. Additionally, it flourished the new ecosystem: digital therapeutics (DTx). With increased pressure on healthcare and increased risk for patients and HCPs, the need for remote solutions for the delivery of healthcare suddenly became all too real.
DTx open new possibilities: there are things that a pill (currently) just cannot do. Collecting data, providing recommendations, interacting with a user, etc are just examples. Areas that are particularly likely to benefit from the new possibilities afforded by DTx include some chronic diseases and mental health. In these areas, traditional approaches have often seen limited success or simply could not provide a solution to patient’s needs because the needs relate primarily to day-to-day management of symptoms, treatment management, day-today treatment delivery, and remote monitoring. While some of these can be met by healthcare practitioners (HCP) within a traditional setting, HCP capacity was already limited in most healthcare systems even prior to the current crisis, and crucially was not practically available to a great many people.
Digital therapeutics: the rise of digital health technologies during the Covid-19 pandemic / Mewburn Ellis / 12 November 2021
01. High TB incidence, prevalence and mortality of Korea
02. Growth of digital terapeutics (DTx) industry
Case Studies
I conducted an investigation on digital therapeutics that have been launched in the Korean and global markets. The analysis examined the targeted diseases, features provided for treatment, and the user experience design.
Digital therapeutics are currently utilized primarily for the management of diseases (chronic illnesses and mental health conditions) that require regular maintenance. The use of chatbots for counseling is also being actively developed. Thus, digital therapeutics are appropriate for the treatment of tuberculosis, where 1) daily medication management is essential and 2) real-time counseling for medication side effects is necessary.
Research Insights
User Research
:In-Depth Interview
In order to find out what specific difficulties and needs tuberculosis patients face during treatment,
I conducted in-depth interviews with 10 patients.
Findings:
Detailed guidance on side effects of tuberculosis drugs is needed
Encouragement from the medical staff helps a lot
Main Questions:
Have you been made aware of the necessity of tuberculosis related education?
How have you dealt with any side effects?
Could you elaborate on the main topics of discussion and if there were any difficulties in communicating with the doctor?
Shadowing
I observed the patient's entire process from visiting the hospital, waiting, receiving medical treatment, and prescribing medicines, and identified the patient’s needs.
Field Research Findings
I identified a difference between the requirements of doctors and patients to achieve the goal of tuberculosis treatment. I considered how to reconcile these two needs.
Value Proposition
Service Develop
Service Main Features
Considering the elderly patients, the menu composition must be simple and intuitive.
Help both medical staff and patients to have efficient and convenient access to treatment information via dashboard.
Help patients easily find information about tuberculosis and receive real-time counseling using the chatbot.
Product Management
In order to communicate closely with developers and efficiently manage work situations, I organized tasks based on work priorities and deadlines on Notion. I managed product development by organizing work content and holding weekly meetings to help developers understand.
Usability Tests
Design Improvements
1) Treatment information page:
● Visual separation of information corresponding to the entire course of treatment from information corresponding to a day in the calendar
● Add medication completion time
2) Test results page:
● Separation of test type and sample type
● Colors are assigned to test result information so that the results can be grasped intuitively at a glance
● Added explanations to help interpret the meaning of the test result
3) Reduced the depth of 'Record Medication'
As 'record medication' is a frequently used function, it has been reduced from 3 depths to 2 depths so that the menu can be accessed quickly.
4) Unification of sub-menu UX Writing
The UX writing of the sub-menu title was unified in a tone in which ‘the patient asks the doctor a question’. We want to provide user-friendly UX writing in the process of using the chatbot. (Example: Existing 'Avoid going out at the beginning of treatment' -> After correction, 'It's tuberculosis, can I go out?')
5) Illustration production
In order to give a sense of unity to the visual tone of the chatbot service, the main menu illustrations have been recreated.
-Role: Improving understanding of menu functions / Improving friendliness and reliability
Service Introduction Video
My Learnings
Learned how to convert collected data into objective figures in order to convince collaborating stakeholders and align their needs.
As a designer, it was challenging to balance the different perspectives of various interested parties and embody those diverse perspectives in the form of visual services.
In order to convince both healthcare providers and developers,
I converted vague measurements (subjective evaluation based on my personal feelings) into objective quantitative values (such as the number of seconds it took them to touch the button and the number of patients who struggled with the service). As a result of improving the service according to objective data, I could obtain positive feedbacks in the final test.
Next Step
Support much seamless and effective UX by using technologies such as voice transmission method using AI device / IoT technology
During the usability tests, patients were required to input their medication using the keyboard on a mobile phone. Unfortunately, those with reduced vision or shaking hands had difficulty navigating this process. Seeing this, I realized that a different approach was needed for these elderly patients.
So I sought to replace the text-based delivery method with a voice transmission method using an AI device instead. If circumstances permit, I believe we must segment the needs of each user and address these needs more effectively and efficiently.
I also found the mobile app for recording one’s medication history largely ineffective, as some patients were so forgetful that they could not recall whether they had taken their medicine. This imposed an additional burden of remembering medicinal intake. Consequently, while the mobile app may benefit doctors in checking their patient’s status, its utility for elderly patients remains to be seen. For this process to be seamless, we must take full advantage of IoT technology that uses things closely related to the patients, such as a medicine cabinet or a water bottle.
**You can check the insights that I shared with my team at here : notion link