“Putting the Patient at the centre of Digital Health Solutions” involves one key thing – Keeping it Simple.
Patients in the 21st Century are demanding access to high quality, relevant information which is meaningful, helpful, and clear to understand. In return we can expect more motivated healthcare consumers who take control and manage multiple health conditions more effectively – keeping them well for longer, and society healthier.
Using image recognition technologies such as barcode scanning, QR codes and Augmented Reality provide a secure, and easy method to actively engage patients with their medicines or medical devices through dedicated apps and digital health solutions.
But how do we keep the healthcare consumer on-side? Medical information can be complex and often written in a way that is only accessible to those with expertise. Keeping the language and layout user-friendly, with native functions across Android or iOS formats creates a sense of familiarity and ease.
Recognising the limitations and benefits of an app, versus an online portal experience is also important. Nobody wants to read page after page of tight, technical text on a screen 3.5” across! So keep information clear, tight, and highly relevant to the end user. At it’s best, digital patient solutions are a communication discipline that cuts to the core of what the user wants, and needs to see / hear.
But how do you know what your mHealth consumer wants?
Ask them. And Listen.
At Talking Medicines , we often joke that we should have called ourselves ‘Listening Medicines’. We are privileged to spend a large amount of our development time working with real people, with real health and medicines concerns who provide valuable insight into what they need, what they want, and what they feel about Medsmart, our digital health solution for over 12,500 UK medicines. And what do we hear most often? That’s right;
Keep it Simple.
