IXD302 Product Pitch : Research

Proof of Concept

Before I could go about research for my product pitch, I had to know what I need to include in my pitch in order to validate my concept. Essentially I have to be able to prove that there’s a market for it and it should exist.

I learned a lot about the different ways to go about validating ideas from week 10’s lecture on Proof of Concept and Initial Research but I also looked to the book “Ux For Lean Start Ups” by Laura Klein for a more in depth guide.

 

What’s The Problem?

From my interview with my granny I did to develop my concept I identified a problem being that new doctors don’t know your medical history and as a patient it can find it hard to remember. I realised during my research that that problem I could split into two and so that is how I approached it going forward.

In a tutorial session I was also encouraged to look into the NHS’s ongoing GP crisis and find a possible way to improve that situation with my product as well.

Validating Problem No.1

I validated this problem with my initial interviews / concept testing but because I was only interviewed a couple people. I had to do some more research online because other wise I could potentially be designing a product that solves a very specific problem that effects very few people.

I looked for sources on the issue and the effects of poor communication in health care settings and here is what I found including patient stories…

 

• Poor communication by health care professionals may lead to life-threatening complications: examples from two case reports

• Poor Hand-Off Communication Leads to Jennifer Nibarger’s Death

• Brian Goldman: Doctors make mistakes. Can we talk about that?

• Communication in Healthcare: My Experiences & Thoughts -Lucy Watts MBE

• Access, Interest, and Attitudes Toward Electronic Communication for Health Care Among Patients in the Medical Safety Net

• Failed to Communicate, Steven Coffee II’s Story

• Hidden in Her Medical History, Lyn Behnke’s Story

• Impact of patient communication problems on the risk of preventable adverse events in acute care settings

• Lost in Translation: Challenges and Opportunities in Physician-to-Physician Communication During Patient Handoffs

• Exploring the Causes of Adverse Events in NHS Hospital Practice

• Communication Failures: An Insidious Contributor to Medical Mishaps

• A Research Agenda for Communication Between Health Care Professionals and Patients Living With Serious Illness

• The Consequences of Poor Communication During Transitions from Hospital to Skilled Nursing Facility: A Qualitative Study

• Sharing the true stories: improving communication between Aboriginal patients and healthcare workers

• Communication behaviours in a hospital setting: an observational study

• Nurse handover: patient and staff experiences

• Incidents relating to the intra-hospital transfer of critically ill patients

• The importance of interactions between patients and healthcare professionals for heart failure self-care: A systematic review of qualitative research into patient perspectives 

• Are you Concerned? Patient Testimonials in Medical Communication Affect Healthy Recipients’ Emotions and Memory

• Dangers of Poor Communication in Healthcare
• For your information:Why is Your Medical History Important?

Validating Problem No.2

The second problem I identified from initial interviews was having trouble remembering everything in stressful situations…

To validate this problem I did some research on the effects off stress on our memory…

 

• Recall in Older Cancer Patients: Measuring Memory for Medical Information 

• Confusion, Memory Loss, and Altered Alertness

• Patients’ memory for medical information

• Factors associated with patient recall of key information in ambulatory specialty care visits: Results of an innovative methodology

• What factors affect patients’ recall of general practitioners’ advice?

• Acute stress impairs memory retrieval independent of time of day

• Stress and Memory: A Selective Review on Recent Developments in the Understanding of Stress Hormone Effects on Memory and Their Clinical Relevance

• Stress and memory retrieval: mechanisms and consequences
• Both stress experience and age determine the impairment or enhancement effect of stress on spatial memory retrieval

• Stress and Memory: Behavioural Effects and Neurobiological Mechanisms

• The Real Reason That Going to the Doctor Gives You Anxiety

 

Validating Problem No.3

I then also did a ton of research on the GP crisis within the NHS. I found a lot of information on UK news outlets as well as testimonies and stories on online forums that helped me validate this problem fairly quickly.

 

Identifying My Market

From my research on the problems I was able to determine that my market would be GP’s and their patients. Thus I will be using my research findings to create simple personas for both groups.

 

Possible Competition

From simple researching I found lots of examples of personal health tracking apps as well as electronic health record softwares but no hybrid between the two which is what my product “Health Story” would be.

What’s next?

Now that I’ve done my research, it’s time to plan my pitch and design my slides.