Patient centered design: Challenges and lessons learned from working with health professionals and schizophrenic patients in e-therapy contexts

Abstract

Patient Centered Design (PCD) is a particular type of User Centered Design (UCD) where the end-user is a patient that will use an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solution for healthcare. It focuses on needs, wants and skills of the product's primary user and implies involving end-users in the decision-making and development process of the solution. e-Therapy aims to provide support to therapy sessions through ICT solutions. In the mental health arena is being used for specific therapeutic contexts and is an especially difficult environment due to specificities of the patients' conditions; the physical access to patients is restricted and, sometimes, not even possible. Thus, a PCD approach can be accomplished through the health professionals involved, applying some of the most well-known methods of UCD: interviews, questionnaires, focus groups and participatory design. eSchi is an e-Therapy tool that complements traditional practices for the cognitive rehabilitation and training of schizophrenic patients and was successfully developed using a PCD approach. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.