yourLab

"youRlab" is an OpenDot co-design process which involved 13 rheumatologists of SIRyoung (the national network of under-40 members of the Italian Society of Rheumatology) from all over Italy to identify unmet needs and outline innovative solutions to facilitate their daily work with patients.

The rheumatologists guided by OpenDot designers, focused on the critical issues encountered when visiting and treating people with rheumatoid arthritis. The course took place in hybrid mode between distance learning and in-presence sessions, and was structured in three phases:

1. Introduction to the co-design method and definition of needs;

2. Creation of project concepts for the identified needs;

3. Development and implementation of three prototypes.

OpenDot created ad-hoc tools to help doctors familiarise themselves with design language and tools, three prototypes were made within five months targeting 30 needs.

Hey SIR! is an intuitive and accessible virtual assistant which supports doctor-patient communication during an examination. It can be easily integrated into the organisation’s computer system or consulted as a stand-alone web page. 

The digital tool works as a step-by-step guided procedure if the patient undergoing treatment needs to contact their doctor, a hospital facility or the relevant department. 

The patient interacts with Hey SIR! by answering a few questions. At the end of the process, enough useful information will be provided to clarify the most common doubts, or a precise and concise request will be organised and automatically sent to the relevant doctor. The automatic sorting, information provided during the process, automatic creation of an emergency and standard formatting of the email, reduce the time needed for communication with patients.

smARt is a paper and digital reporting system that optimises the patient's understanding of the prescribed therapies, schedules tests and creates useful paper documents for patients. 

The paper tool generated by smARt, designed to be given at each visit, provides the patient with a summary of the assigned therapies, information on medication and a check list of things to do and bring to the next appointment. This is made easier by iconographic language, large, easily readable fonts and an option for automatic translation into other languages.

The information collected makes the patient's medication dose and intake method more understandable and effective using an automatic calendar. The patient can access the digital tool through a unique QR code which allows listening to the information, schedule reminders and wake-up calls directly linked to their personal calendar.

REcheck is an app that helps patients who have recently been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis familiarise themselves with the disease and their bodies. 

The app allows the “check-in” by taking pictures of the hands and marking the joint assessment, perceived pain, mood and morning stiffness. The app notifies the patient of the need for a new “check-in” every fortnight, but the patient can do these more frequently.

The collected information allows the patient to observe illness development, it helps self-assessment and dialogue with the doctor in monitoring the treatment impact. An app section includes tutorials on recognising symptoms and alerts to monitor. REcheck allows users to consult past information using a simple data display and share a six-monthly summary of their health status with their doctor.