| dc.description.abstract | Regardless how effective medications are, if patients do not follow the prescribed instructions, the whole healthcare system would be compromised. Non-adherence with medication generally or antibiotics specifically is a crucial healthcare problem in which substantial cost is required for patient’s frequent common hospitalization due to antibiotic resistance. There are two kinds of non-adherence with medications, unintentional and intentional. Unintentional adherence may be the result of forgetfulness and not knowing exactly how to use medicines; as the solution there are many innovations that address the forgetfulness or unintentionally around taking medications like pill dispensers or reminder mobile applications, but few regarding intentionality .
So the focus of this project will be on the second cause, children with intentional non-adherence which is a consistent issue, when they choose not to take their prescribed antibiotics properly based on their experience or their parents´ beliefs or knowledge. Norway has recognized non-adherence issue and has produced pharmacy-follow-up solutions called “Medisinstart” service which is going to be adopted in pharmacies all over the country in May 2018 in which patients with chronic illness will receive two follow-up interviews and questionnaires with pharmacy 1-2 and 3-5 weeks after prescription.
So, obviously health providers are trying to solve this problem from a medical and pharmaceutical angle but from a designer’s point of view; Intentional non-adherence with medication is largely a result of people’s behavior and the factors that prompt such a behavior should be recognized. There the challenge lies in educating the importance of taking medicine in general, but also supporting children to keep taking the treatments.
People in general do not tend to finish a prescribed antibiotics course and specifically they stop taking their treatments once they feel better; it has happened to many of us but when we do not take a full course of antibiotics or take them for the wrong things, the hardiest bacteria survive, and spread. If we could break that destructive behavior, we would save thousands of lives and billions of Kroners a year. The final outcome would be an application alongside with the physical pack ; prescribed by doctors and provided by pharmacists to prevent potential children from intentional non-adherence behavior with antibiotics.
This thesis is an exploration of gamification in the context of healthcare system in Norway and uses the widespread usage of technology as an intervention in order to meet a better experience for children, the so-called digital natives. According to Wikipedia, a digital native is a person who was born during or after the general introduction of digital technologies and who, through interacting with digital technology from an early age, has a greater understanding of its concepts (1). They have grown up with access to highly engaging video games and consumer software, and have similar expectations of every innovation. All pictures, Tables and maps are taken and done by me, unless I mention the reference. | en |
