First steps in co-designing an online patient decision support tool for enhanced medication management in older people

Objective

To develop a preliminary version (minimum viable product [MVP]) of an online medication management patient decision support for older people informed by a stakeholder committee (SC).

Methods

A SC comprising of consumers, health-care practitioners and researchers was recruited to inform the development of the MVP. The SC met via videoconferencing, individually or in groups, with investigators to provide guidance and advice on the design and features of the MVP. Brief content analysis was performed on data extracted from video-recorded meetings, meeting minutes, notes and email correspondence to inform the MVP development.

Results

The SC comprised two older people, one carer, pharmacist, nurse, geriatrician, general practitioner and two digital health researchers (n = 9) from three Australian states. In collaboration with the SC, an MVP called My Medicine Goals (mymedicinegoals.com) was developed for older people. It supports consumers to document and update their medicines list; identify, plan and communicate goals of care; and provides a medicines information resource hub. Other tools include interactive versions of the revised Patient's Attitudes Towards Deprescribing questionnaire and self-assessment of medication risks.

Conclusions

This project presents an approach empowering older people and carers to play active roles in co-design research to develop relevant and impactful online patient-facing health-care applications for older people.