Increase Therapy Understanding and Medication Adherence for Patients with Inflammatory Skin Diseases Through Augmented Reality

Abstract

Augmented Reality (AR) offers an incomparable user experience by projecting digital content in a user’s real environment. Like AR, dermatology is a visual field, and the integration of AR technology into the daily lives of patients and dermatologists promises synergy opportunities. Patients with inflammatory skin diseases as atopic dermatitis and psoriasis face complex challenges to adhere to their therapy. The lack of understanding about the specific disease and the unknowledge of the potential worsening process leads to uncertainty in therapy and place an additional burden on therapy management. The benefits of AR as an enabler of learning experiences have been discussed in various fields as professional education in healthcare. Studies have been conducted regarding the potential impact of and opportunities provided by AR for patients with inflammatory skin diseases. According to the design science research framework, dermatologists and patients have been interviewed to investigate and evaluate an AR prototype in the context of therapy understanding and medication adherence for patients. A visual framework of a mobile application and the AR prototype were demonstrated to dermatologists and patients based on semi-structured interviews. The added value of AR in the analysis was reported to be beneficial to increase not just patients’ understanding about their disease but also the motivation to be more adherent to the prescribed therapy. The AR visualizations of different manifestations of the affected skin were acknowledged as helpful, especially in the context of prevention of further worsening.