Balanced

BALANCED - An eHealth approach to modern healthcare communication

BALANCED is a mobile eHealth approach for networking patients, physicians and health institutions, thus shaping the health ecosystem of the future. The application was developed in cooperation with the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology (IKMB) and the support of the DFG Cluster of Excellence "Inflammations at Interfaces" in Kiel. Seamlessly integrated into the lives of patients, the daily work of physicians and the IT infrastructure of research, it combines a multitude of functions and offers added value for all involved parties.

Muthesius Kunsthoschule - Master Final Project
2019
customer: UKSH Kiel / IKMB
cooperativ project with Jan Figura
Docent: Prof. Frank Jacob

Application / UX/UI Design / E-Health

view concept documentation view patient flyer

CONCEPT/BACKGROUND

The term IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) is used to describe recurrent or continuous inflammatory diseases of the bowel with prolonged episodes. Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are the most common autoimmune diseases in the field of gastroenterology. In Germany, an estimated 440.000 people are currently ill. The diseases are often intermittent with very specific symptoms such as abdominal pain, cramps and sometimes bloody diarrhoea. They lead to considerable impairments, which go far beyond the suffering from the symptoms themselves and severely restrict the patients in their everyday life, work and leisure. The monitoring of inflammations, symptoms and quality of life as well as the possibility to participate in care and therapy decisions are therefore of considerable importance for chronic patients. Terms such as empowerment, self-management or participatory decision-making by those affected are becoming increasingly important. In order to cope with this complex set of problems, various service providers in the outpatient, inpatient and rehabilitative care sector must also work very well together. In everyday care, the tools are often still lacking till now.

TARGET

BALANCED aims to network patients, physicians and health institutions, thus shaping the health ecosystem of the future.

CONCEPTION, WIREFRAMING AND PROTOYPING

Multiple functionalities

The application combines specific and multidisciplinary functionalities for each of the parties concerned.

Empowering the Patients - individual disease management

BALANCED supports patients in their daily routine likewise individual disease management and reminds them of medication and appointments. With the App and smart devices the daily course of disease and symptoms are recorded and changes can be analized. Via an end-to-end encryption system the captured data is transmitted in real time with the attending physician and to the research departments. This promotes the understanding of correlations between data and treatment at all levels.

Dynamical, individual content

Together with the physician the functionalities and parameters of the application can be individually adopted according to the need of the patient. Furthermore the content, data and feedback of the application is in constant configuration and adaptation to the current state of the disease. Based on the tracked data and parameters it feedbacks the actual state through an abstract and generative visualization, as well as useful informations that help to actively shape the health status.

Bidirectional Communication

Through the application the patients has all of his health data, doctors and documents at a glance. Through direct contact via a chat, appointments and prescriptions as well as medical documents can be requested and released for the desired doctors. Besides the patient always has the sovereignty overt his data.

Personalized patient management

The corporate use of technologies and the collected data not only improves the communication between medicals and patients, but also creates new possibilities for preventive disease monitoring and individualized therapy. The doctor and assisting "study nurse" obtain a direct overview of the current health status of their patients via the system, coded through a color traffic light. They can react to changes and exacerbation through direct feedback, for example by adjusting the medication accordingly. In addition, the application facilitates data exchange and patient management between several specialist professions and thus guarantees holistic care.