Thesis abstract:

In the field of healthcare in Australia, there is an increase in the digitisation care services, tools and products. With this surge of solutions comes a potential and measurable shift of prioritising efficiency and profitability over conscientiousness. This results in the neglect of broader considerations, such as harm. While these abundant and ubiquitous technologies are prevalent in many forms (i.e., wearables, virtual reality, mobile applications), and provide both opportunities and challenges, there are still severe consequences that arise from its design and implementation. Although transformative in its intention to improve healthcare delivery, harm materialises when there is a gap between healthcare professionals and technology designers because of their differing priorities. These priorities, clinical outcomes versus user experience, often impact the development and implementation of digital interventions.

To prevent critical consequences in a field where outcomes have significant impact on the wellbeing of its end users, this research focuses on identifying harm reporting processes for existing and emerging technologies with the aim to develop a framework that aligns design and healthcare goals.

The research employs a multi-method and a participatory design methodology including exploration and reparation of existing case studies, semi-structured interviews, surveys and workshops. The case studies will explore ongoing digital health projects and identify real world consequences of what overlooking emotional needs are like for patients. Interviews with healthcare professionals and HCI practitioners provide insight and how each group prioritises outcomes in their processes or expectations of the technology. This will reveal gaps in understanding how harm surfaces in digital health technologies. The learning module or framework will be tested through an asynchronous workshop, allowing participants (healthcare, design and patient advocates) to apply it in real world scenarios and evaluate its effectiveness and suitability.

The result of this research is threefold, with the intention to develop a holistic framework or learning module on how to prevent harm in digital health technologies. Theoretical contributions provide insight into fostering a mutual understanding between healthcare practitioners and designers. The empirical contributions provide insight and empirical data that will uncover how current systems are hindering or facilitating interventions to be valuable. Finally, the artefact contribution that will results in a harm prevention framework or learning module with guideless on how to report, communicate and advocate for patients who feel harm through emerging technologies.

The research bridges the gap between Healthcare and Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and contributes to a more collaborative solution that improves overall patient outcomes and care delivery.