Personalising patient education is an important aspect that is needed for patients to become active in decision making and their treatment. Standardised methods are not enough and personalisation can make an improvement in healthcare by focussing more on the patient. This report focusses on patient education at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital from the perspective of healthcare professionals (HCPs). They are the experts in their field and in how patient education is given. Interviews were held with HCPs and observations of the consultation took place to analyze the current patient journey and process of patient education. The results of this research are visualisations of the current process of patient education, insights and opportunities to improve patient education, and a proposal on how to personalise patient education. Patient education can be personalised by personalising the methods, information and dialogue. This should start right at the beginning of the patient journey so that HCPs can focus on putting the patient’s goal as the priority throughout care. Personalised information will keep patients engaged and HCPs can provide personalised care based on their characteristics. This will create a dialogue between patients and HCPs to make shared decisions. Patients that have participated in decision making will be motivated to work on their set goal and understand what to expect, which will improve their satisfaction.

This project presents the design process of an innovative eHealth solution targeted to improve medication adherence for asthma patients with low health literacy. The symptoms of asthma, such as shortness of breath, can lead to a severe reduction in the quality of life. To reduce the severity of these symptoms, it is important that a patient is adherent to their medication. However, people with a low health literacy experience certain barriers, such as lack of capabilities to understand and limited awareness about the effect of the medication. These barriers result in poor medication adherence. The Turbuscope is an intervention that aims at improving the awareness about the effect of the maintenance medication. The awareness is created by providing a reflective self-monitoring experience in which data is interpreted about the adherence and the asthma state. The end product is a finalized concept that embodies design guidelines and recommendations for future designs within the field of improving medication adherence for asthma patients with low health literacy.

This project was done for and in cooperation with Karakter Kinder- en Jeugdpsychiatrie, a psychiatric hospital for children. The aim was to give Karakter knowledge and tools to improve the experience of the therapists during the implementation of Jouw Omgeving, a digital environment that allows patient, parent and therapists to communicate about the therapy process. However, the digital environment is not used much by the therapists and thus not by patients and parent either. Qualitative research was conducted with the therapists in order to find out what parts of the implementation could be improved and how the therapists could become intrinsically motivated to use JO. Based on the insight a training was designed that focused on connecting eHealth to personal values and on gaining skills and knowledge to be able to use Jouw Omgeving. The steps of the training were evaluated with the therapists, which led to some changes in the activities of the training.

The aim of this graduation project was to design a tool that supports type 2 diabetes patients in self-management. Self-management is managing type 2 diabetes in daily life. In order to design a suitable solution, the first step was to get a deeper understanding of the needs and preferences of these patients. Literature was analysed and field research is done in order to get this deeper understanding.

Field study 1 showed the perspectives of patients on ‘self-management’ and what elements it exists of. It showed that patients experience self-management to be ‘diabetes in daily life’. Diabetes is always present and therefore always needs to be managed, that is (new) daily life after diagnosis. Field study 2 showed the elements of self-management from the health professional’s point of view. As well, both field studies looked into how self-management is currently supported, and where support is lacking.
Based on the outcomes of both desk and field research, it is concluded that patients have a need for support in development of knowledge. Information which is needed for development of knowledge is chaotic and the amount, timing and content does not meet their needs.

A design goal was formulated: “Design a tool that provides recently diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients with tailored information, so the patient will experience support during the understanding phase”.

The tool which is developed is a smartphone application called ‘Deel Diabetes’ (‘Diabetes Sharing’). This application facilitates sharing of experiences from daily life amongst type 2 diabetes patients. This way:
- Newly diagnosed patients have one source of information to consult. It combines factual information about type 2 diabetes from websites of health professionals with tips from peers on how to deal with type 2 diabetes in daily life.
- Peers can support each other and learn from each other’s experiences, so not every individual has to figure out things on his/her own again.
- Health professionals can offer newly diagnosed patients a tool, so the patient can start looking for information at his/her own pace.
- Newly diagnosed patients can read about possibilities and practical solutions for dealing with type 2 diabetes in daily life.

Experienced users of the application, who are thus experienced type 2 diabetes patients, are invited to share tips, tools and answers which could support recently diagnosed patients in learning how to deal with type 2 diabetes. What makes this application unique, is that it is designed to stimulate sharing possibilities and solutions, instead of issues and problems which are nowadays discouraging newly diagnosed people.

Not only recently diagnosed patients can benefit from the tool. Also, people who are diagnosed longer ago still encounter situations they did not experience before since the diagnosis type 2 diabetes. For example, going on a holiday to Asia, or trying out a new sport like running a marathon. Check out how other people with type 2 diabetes dealt with this!