Helppo.

SYSTEMS DESIGN | SERVICE DESIGN

Project Highlights

Design Team: Solo Project

Project Advisor: Hugh Dubberly

Timeline: 1.5 weeks

Initiative: Research & System Design

Location: San Francisco

Overview

An exercise in designing systems and utilizing technology to complement and support caregivers in assessing the severity of health crises and avoid unnecessary ER intervention.

The Outcome

An in-home system to support senior people with physical & mental impairment manage their daily health conditions.

The Challenge

Diabetes usually comes with other comorbid diseases that can easily bring patients into critical health conditions.

For senior people with physical or mental impairments, managing these situations alone can be challenging. Additionally, caregivers often misjudge or inappropriately handle these critical situations.

The Solution

A senior friendly system that can complement and support caregivers in assessing the severity of health crises.

The Smart Patch is worn by the patient and continuously measures their vitals.

The Wall Aid Unit displays the patient's vitals and assesses the severity of their condition. In the case of a critical condition, the unit calls the ER.

The Helppo App allows for remote access the patient’s vitals and can be pre-configured with emergency contacts.

To personalize the entire system, health professionals can specify the specific condition of the patient, control their medication, and schedule.

ELEMENTS OF THE SYSTEM

**Alerting of abnormal values and providing first aid guidance**

**Alerting a patients’ critical condition**

**Alerting a patients’ critical condition remotely**

SYSTEM CONCEPTUAL MODEL

The Research

My insights for this project were derived from the ten months I spent in Italy taking care of and supporting my grandparents, Bianca & Bruno, throughout a major health transition.

Caregiver Bianca

Meet grandmother Bianca. She supports Bruno measuring his vitals, keeping a routine on medication, and maintaining a healthy diet.

Due to age however, she often falls short of memory and can’t always be there to help him.

Patient Bruno

Meet grandfather Bruno. He was 87 years old with senile diabetes and other comorbid illnesses such as cardiac insufficiency and capillary leak syndrome.

He had a really hard time managing his health because of his limited movement due to a brain stroke he suffered in 2009.

KNOWING THIS,

How can we complement, support, and help Bianca in taking care of Bruno?

Their Daily Routine

By creating a Journey Map and Feedback Loop Diagram, I was able to visualize my insights and identify where to intervene in the current system.

On a Good day

At the moment, the daily routine consists of Bianca manually measuring Bruno’s glucose, heart rate, and blood pressure, followed by providing his prescribed medications.

On a Bad day

A few times a month, however, his medications are given at different times or even forgotten, resulting in Bruno to witness hypoglycemic episodes overnight and Bianca calling an ambulance. Upon arrival, the ambulance relieves Bruno from his episode by feeding him a spoon of sugar.

New System Conceptual Model

The newly designed system, including the Patch and the Wall Aid, supports and guides Bianca in the following ways

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