Rehab-AMD: co-design of an application for visual rehabilitation and monitoring of Age-related Macular Degeneration

Abstract

Abstract Background The increasing demand for remote medical care, driven by digital healthcare advancements and the COVID-19 pandemic, necessitates effective solutions tailored to patients and healthcare practitioners. Co-design, involving collaboration between software developers, patients, and healthcare practitioners, prioritizes end-user needs. Research indicates that integrating patient perspectives enhances user experience and usability. However, its application in healthcare has been limited to small projects. This work focuses on co-designing a technological solution to enhance the monitoring and visual rehabilitation of individuals with Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), a condition that significantly impacts the quality of life in people over 60. Current vision rehabilitation systems lack personalization, motivation, and effective progress monitoring. Involving patients and healthcare practitioners in the design process aims to ensure the final product meets their needs. Methods The project employs iterative and collaborative principles, involving a vision rehabilitation expert and two AMD patients as active users in the application’s development and validation. The process begins by establishing requirements for user accounts and rehabilitation exercises. It continues with an initial approach extended through user validation. Co-design is facilitated by specific workshops marking each project iteration, totaling four workshops, along with continuous communication sessions between experts and developers to validate design decisions. Initial requirements gathering and constant feedback from end-users, the visual rehabilitator, and patients are crucial for refining the product effectively. Results The workshops produced a prototype featuring a test to monitor changes and progression and 15 visual rehabilitation exercises. Numerous patient and vision rehabilitation-driven software modifications led to a final design that is responsive and adaptive to end-user needs. Conclusions The Rehab-AMD pilot project aims to develop a collaborative and adaptive software solution for AMD rehabilitation by actively involving stakeholders and applying iterative design principles. Co-design in the Rehab-AMD solution proves to be a methodology that identifies usability issues and needs from the initial design stages. This approach ensures that software developers create a final product that is genuinely useful and manageable for people with AMD and the targeted vision rehabilitators.