Caretown
Transforming
self-management to a family and community-centered model of care.
The rapid adoption of digital health since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed several barriers to accessing care for many marginalized communities such as older adults, non-english speaking folk, and those who are not tech-savvy.
The approach
To achieve our goal of a family-centred model of digital health care, better known as Caretown, the team is following the standard design thinking process which includes the discovery, design, development and test phase.
Understanding the existing gap was the first step in our roadmap. To begin our discovery journey, the team identified its research question as:
“In a Canadian population of older ethnic adults living with HF, what is the impact of engaging family caregivers in a dyadic model of shared care to support technology use and symptom management?”
The team conducted interviews with family/friend caregivers of patients enrolled in the Medly for heart failure program to learn about the caregiving journey, the Medly experience, and future opportunities to create a caregiver account.
Caretown features
Upon gaining a better understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities faced by caregivers, the research team begun to identify various features and functionalities that would contribute to a caregiver account to enable dyadic shared-care.
Live reports
Data-sharing of patient reported outcome measure through the
live report.
Caregiver cards
Actionable tips to support dyadic symptom management.
Direct messaging
Caregiver and broader care
team communication.
Medication wallet
Storage of medication information such as name, dose, frequency, etc.
Medical timeline
Supporting caregivers in the recall of care partner’s medical history.
Resources
Provides educational and caregiver-specific health and wellness resources.