BRAIN CANCER HOLISTIC CARE APP

a mobile app for caregivers of patients with terminal brain cancer to better document data about their loved one's health, for more holistic treatment.

Spring 2020

USC Convergent Science Institute in Cancer – Dr. Peter Kuhn’s lab

Iovine & Young Academy Impact Lab

Team Project

1/ PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

client

USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience: Convergent Science Institute in Cancer is the leading cancer lab at USC that focuses on predicting effective individualized treatment for cancer patients

problem

/ Physicians and oncologists lack information about cancer patients’ daily living, outside of the information they can gather from formal appointments

/ Patients lack control over their electronic health records (EHR)

focus

/ Glioblastoma is terminal brain cancer. Its rapidly-growing, highly critical nature makes the impact of increased insight very high

target audience

/ Caregivers of patients with Glioblastoma

/ Oncologists treating patients with Glioblastoma

2/ user & medical research

I initiated and led the user research initiative — conducting interviews with Glioblastoma patients and caregivers to understand their needs and lifestyles, as well as with physicians and oncologists who work with brain cancer patients. This led to the understanding that a system for collecting holistic data from the patients exists but is extremely inefficient and thus, is practically overlooked.

I then dove deeper into studying the scientific / medical side of the problem, the existing healthcare systems, and the lifestyles of terminal brain cancer patients.

“The doctors ask us to track how we’re feeling, but with the extreme overload of information, I don’t have time to track how we’re feeling on a regular basis. It practically changes every hour of the day. That’s way too much, we don’t have time for that. I’m trying to keep pills down and schedules going and getting him to move and walk.”

–– Glioblastoma Patient Caregiver
“I would love to have an app to track his physical and emotional health for the day. There’s an app for medication, there’s an app for the appointments, I would love one for tracking how he’s feeling as well.”

–– Glioblastoma Patient Caregiver
“we don’t have a systematic way of keeping track of things. I need to do a better job of communicating with the doctor.”

–– Glioblastoma Patient Caregiver
“I think keeping track of the mental part of things would be useful – is the person watching TV all day or are they reading or are they doing something a little more mentally challenging – things that somehow capture mood, for example, are they down today.”

–– Glioblastoma Patient Caregiver

3/ app wireframes

4/ final app prototype

click-through prototype

5/ PHYSICIAN INTERFACE prototype

5/ user feedback & takeaways

I presented our mockups to the same patients and caregivers that I had spoken to previously to ensure that what we’re creating effectively solves the defined need. Some of the feedback we got from these potential users include the following:

A caregiver validated the value in simple, engaging, and effective check-ins and added that if she could integrate the check-ins on the app into her regular care routine, for example, scheduling and getting reminders to fill out the check-in when she is giving her husband his medications, that would make it easier for her to complete.

Another caregiver and I discussed his likelihood to be a user of this app. On a scale of 1 to 10, he would be at least a 7 to start out — in that he’s more likely than not to try it out. But the challenge would be: how we keep him on the app regularly. We discussed reminders, notifications, and milestones. This is an important aspect of the experience design, understanding that the caregiver is already going through a lot and we want our solution to ease this, not add one more thing to their to-do list.

I believe this comes down to making the UI more warm, motivating, and encouraging for the caregiver, so they get immediate feedback and know that every check-in they do is helping the doctor care for their loved one, so there’s a balance of give and take.

While the big picture objective of this project is not to just create an app for caregivers, I understand that the only way the physicians are going to get this essential daily living information is if we can keep the caregivers on the app.