pharmacist with tablet in front of drug shelf

Project: Digital model to support medicine adherence to the public

The purpose of this project is to investigate how we can improve drug use through knowledge support and strengthened patient participation. The project also intends to investigate how this type of support can be followed up in the long term, in the form of effects on safety and compliance with drug use and care contacts.

This project was concluded in December 2020.

Project information

Project manager
Tora Hammar
Other project members
Mexhid Ferati, Sara Hamqvist, Päivi Jokela, Lina Nilsson, My Zetterholm
Participating organizations
Linnaeus University, Region Stockholm, the Swedish eHealth Agency (E-hälsomyndigheten)
Financier
Seed financing through Platform eHealth
Timetable
Jan–Dec 2020
Subject
Information systems (Department of Informatics, Faculty of Technology)
Media studies and journalism (Department of Media and Journalism, Faculty of Arts and Humanities)
Health and caring sciences (Department of Medicine and Optometry, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences)

More about the project

Sweden has a leading role in the development of evidence-based knowledge support for the pharmaceutical field. For healthcare and pharmacies, there is knowledge and decision support that, among other things, evaluates the risk of drug interactions, side effects in polypharmacy, and controls the dosage of drugs.

There is a demand to provide similar but adapted knowledge support to the public as well. Today, patients are becoming increasingly involved in their care, which is supported by digital development. Participating and informed patients are often more motivated and follow their treatment better.

Today, there are some drug services and apps aimed at patients, but it is unclear how well they meet the needs of residents. Within Region Stockholm (unit for national knowledge and decision support, JanusMed) and the Swedish eHealth Agency, work has begun to develop resident services in the area. In connection with the development and introduction of new types of knowledge support for the general public, research is important to study how well they meet the public's needs, how the information is perceived and can be designed in user interfaces and adapted to different user groups.

The purpose of the current project is to investigate how we can improve drug use through knowledge support and strengthened patient participation. The project also intends to investigate how this type of support can be followed up in the long term in the form of effects on safety and compliance with drug use and care contacts. Methods will include interviews, questionnaire studies, participatory design, interdisciplinary design workshops and epidemiological studies of effects.

The project is expected to contribute to knowledge about how knowledge services for residents can be designed and followed up, which in the long run can lead to increased patient participation, improved drug use and increased patient safety.

The project is part of the research in the Interaction Design Research Group and the Linnaeus Knowledge Environment Sustainable Health.

Staff