Open-ended data probing to inform the future of home health care

Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a complex disease with a high mortality rate, affecting millions of patients worldwide (Savarese and Lund, 2017). In many countries, healthcare systems are already under stress and with the ageing population the number of CHF patients is expected to increase even further. Remote patient monitoring has already been shown to decrease length and frequency of hospitalization in patients with heart failure, as well as mortality (Hindricks et al. 2014). Thus far, the monitored data has been primarily clinical, while heart failure patients also struggle with personal and emotional challenges and with changing relevant aspects of their lifestyle. As each CHF patient copes in their own way and context, effective data collection requires high degrees of personalisation and versatility.
In this research, we focus on collecting and curating non-clinical data that qualitatively describe patient lifestyle changes and psychological condition. We investigate forms of complementary use with clinical data sets and outline the benefits of personalised care through remote monitoring techniques in the home environment. To gain a nuanced understanding of how individuals track personal health data in an everyday context, we are developing a methodology for open-ended data tracking. Through iteratively designing probes, we are creating a system that will allow patients to assign which data they want to monitor and share with their health care professionals, based on best practices in data tracking. Results of our preliminary field deployment show that the data collection activities provoke the reflection of participants and further encourage them to envision the better cases, as they were more aware of their needs. The positive findings warrant our next phases of expedition with more participants.