Suggested design of decision ad for diabetes management. 

 

Medical information can be overwhelming to patients, when they are trying to make decisions for their health care. Large amounts of medical information can be difficult for them to understand clearly. Different patients looking at the same medical decision aid may be looking for different information, depending on their specific situations and therefore their specific needs. Their feelings, preferences, values and lifestyles affect their goals with respect to what they want from the decision-making experience. Patients can easily ignore an important medical factor if the decision aid fails to inform them of its relationship to their lives. In a medical decision aid, what can guide patients to make a decision for their own benefit is a clear presentation on how their medical situation is connected to medical options. Because situations of different patients can vary greatly, the purpose of a medical decision aid is not simply to list items of information, but also to encourage patients to interact with the information. It’s design therefore involves building up a database on a patient by collecting his or her personal information and showing how it is related to medical knowledge, to help patients filter information and find what they truly need. 

 

On the left is the demonstration of the medical decision aid design focusing on unique medical situation of patients. 

 

Full version of my research article about information design of medical decision aid: A Framework and Guidance for Design of Patient-friendly Medical Decision Aids