A Design Concept for Diabetes Management Devices

The blogger Amy Tenderich posted her “Open Letter to Steve Jobs” in April, pleading with the Apple CEO to apply some of that company’s design expertise to improving the lives of the 20 million American diabetics who rely on technology to manage their condition every day. Amy’s blog post got a lot of attention, even making its way to TechCrunch.

The company Adaptive path spent time with diabetics, who showed them their routines and talked about how hard it can be to stay motivated to keep them healthy. They shared their experiences with the technology products that they literally depend on for their lives. With their insights, the scientists in Adaptive path were able to came up with dozens and dozens of possible design concepts, sketching out different approaches to achieving those goals. Out of those concepts, a few key elements started to fall into place. They looked at the solutions out on the market and talked to diabetes educators about what works for people and what doesn’t.

They built on those concepts by fleshing out the interaction design of the product, mapping out how the users would monitor their condition and give themselves insulin. At this point, it became clear that a bunch of interface mockups wouldn’t be enough to convey their ideas. That’s when they started producing this video.

The video doesn’t stand alone. They’ve provided all the background on the thinking behind the Charmr concept, including their research findings, as part of their case study. It’s been an exciting project that has pushed them in unexpected ways — in other words, just the kind of project they had hoped for.

High quality video of Charmr (18 MB)

Sources

http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/08/14/charmr-a-design-concept-for-diabetes-management-devices/
http://www.diabetesmine.com/2007/04/an_open_letter_.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQe1tssyGkU
http://www.adaptivepath.com


Thanks to Simon for the links :)

Hospital pharmacy tools

Thomson Healthcare Micromedex provides many products (DrugDex, Martindale, PoisinDex, Drug Reax) and solutions that are being used in many hospital pharmacies all over the world.

Hospital pharmacy workflow tool identifies high-risk patients, manages intervention tasks, and provides reporting on intervention status and outcomes. Provides desktop and mobile access to comprehensive patient and clinical data – including demographics, medications, lab results, as well as relevant Micromedex referential data.

Many Hospital Pharmacies still rely on “paper and eyeballs” to identify and manage high-risk patient populations. The Pharmacy Intervention Solution automates identification and tracking, so pharmacists can spend less time on bookkeeping and more time being clinicians.

For more details: http://www.thomson.com/

Summit on Biotechnology by the European Academy for Hospital Pharmacy (EurAHP)

EurAHP (European Academy for Hospital Pharmacy), that was founded by the EAHP (European Association of Hospital Pharmacists), educates the Hospital Pharmacists in those subjects that are insufficient in the basic programs of study of Pharmacy.

The first program, “Train The Trainers, TTT”, will begin with the Seminar of Biotechnology, in Malta from 3 until 5 October 2007. The training that will be given in participating will be propagated in entire Europe to the Hospital Pharmacists. This educational Seminar of Biotechnology is the first in a line of programmed educational activities in order to face a wide spectrum of subjects in the area of Hospital Pharmacy.

AMGEN (http://www.amgen.com/) is the sponsor of EurAHP at the present moment and other sponsors is expected at an early date.

The EurAHP is managed by a Steering Committee (SC)
The Steering Committee is responsible for adequate execution and performance of the project, for the nomination of EurAHP Faculty members and the evaluation of the outcome.

The EurAHP Governance Board (GB)
The EurAHP Governance Board ensures that the Steering Committee’s decisions are taken in full independence.

The EurAHP Advisory Board (AB)
The role of the EurAHP Advisory Board is to propose educational topics, potential faculty and all other organisational aspects (such as ways to execute the teaching programmes on a national / local level) to the EurAHP Steering Committee.

Participants of the TTT (“Train the Trainer”) programme have been nominated by their national associations and are willing and able to disseminate the knowledge at a national level with the support of their national association. Participants will be trained as teachers and are expected to hold 1 to 5 seminars at national level depending on the size and needs of their own country.

The first program, Train the Trainer Workshops, will start with the Summit on Biotechnology, a "train the trainer" session, Malta on 3 to 5 October 2007.

Source
http://www.eahponline.com/upload/ejhp/EAHPNews(12).pdf