[MA 2023 22] Co-design of a tool to improve patient-physician communication at the memory clinic

Amsterdam UMC, location AMC, department of Medical Psychology, in close collaboration with Alzheimercenter Amsterdam

Proposed by: Leonie Visser [n.c.visser@amsterdamumc.nl]

Talking about memory complaints with care providers at the memory clinic can be challenging for patients, but is important to be able to provide good care. A tool could stimulate and support communication between people with memory complaints and care providers at the memory clinic. The aim of this study is to design a communication tool through an iterative co-design process using the Double Diamond model with people with memory complaints, care partners, and care providers. From the discover and define phase, we learned that the tool should help people with memory complaints and their care partners to give a complete picture to the care provider of the whole situation and relevant personal information, such as complaints, personal preferences and needs. In the coming months, i.e. during the MSc project, we will further develop the tool.

Currently we do not know what such a tool should look like. In the coming months, we will start with co-design sessions and questionnaires, in which we will shape the content, form and layout of the tool together with potential end users in iterative cycles.

Research questions:

· What are the current key pain points for why it is hard for people with memory complaints and care partners to give a complete picture and personalised information to care providers at the memory clinic and what are possible solutions that tackle this issue? What is a suitable solution according to the end-users? (based on the first few co-design sessions and questionnaires)

· What are possibilities regarding content, form, and lay-out of a tool that helps people with memory problems and their care partners to communicate about their personal situation with care providers at the memory clinic? (based on co-design sessions)

· What are tool characteristics that end-users find important? (based on co-design sessions and questionnaires)

· What features do end-users like or dislike? (based on user testing and questionnaires)

· How usable is the final tool according to the end-users? Tested under a diverse group of end-users, for instance in terms of cognition, (health) literacy, and/or educational attainment. What should the explanation of the tool at least contain for end-users to be able to use it in practice? (based on user testing)

· How likely are end-users to use the tool in practice? What are possible barriers and facilitators regarding the implementation of the tool? (based on user testing and questionnaires)

Expected results:

The main outcome is the delivery of two/three prototypes and user-testing based on the final prototype that emerged from the co-creation sessions (e.g. in the eHealth Living & Learning Lab). Next to that you will help with the set-up of the co-design sessions (content, delivery, and analysis) as well as the questionnaires (content, delivery, and analysis), which will be done in close collaboration with the rest of the study team. Quantitative results will be analysed via descriptive statistics and qualitative results via thematic content analysis.