Problem Statement

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 6 in 10 adults in the U.S. have chronic conditions. This number is still on the rise, but the research has not kept up with the increase of chronic illnesses, especially for rare diseases like Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS). The chronic illness community has been historically underrecognized, understudied, and underserved. Health providers do not have enough research information and resources to diagnose and treat patients with complex chronic conditions. As a result, patients often have to take their health into their own hands.

With so many symptoms and triggers, health management can be an overwhelming task and take a mental toll. However, existing solutions in the market do not adequately meet their specific needs. Patients need a simple way to keep track of their health data, which can not only help them take control of their health but also better communicate with doctors.

Insights

From over 60 secondary sources and over 50 primary sources, we synthesized the following four insights:

• Many different rare chronic illnesses share common patient profiles, symptoms, and triggers.

• There is extreme variation between patients of the same illness.

• A lack of understanding and awareness about chronic illness in the medical community means that many struggle to get an appropriate diagnosis, leading to mistrust and disconnect between patients and doctors.

• To doctors, data speaks louder than words. Quantifying and visualizing symptoms may be a key step to better facilitate communication.

How Might We

Based on those insights, we started to think: How Might We (HMW)…

• Create a solution that isn’t limited to a single illness?

• Enable patients to track their unique and varied symptoms and quantify qualitative symptoms?

• Bridge the gap between doctors and patients?

• Leverage the power of data to help patients to build credibility with their doctors? Aggregate comprehensive longitudinal data for doctors and researchers to better understand chronic illness?

Specifications

These HMW questions lead us to the following specifications as criteria for an ideal solution.

• Data-driven: to bridge the communication gap between doctors and patients through compelling data analytics.

• Customizable: to meet the specific needs of patients with drastically different profiles.

• Frictionless: to ease the physical and mental stress of tracking, which can help users establish good tracking habits over time.

Solution

After over 18 testing sessions and 4 design iterations, we came up with Flourish - an app to help patients with multi-symptom chronic illnesses track their symptoms, triggers, treatments, and more. Powerful analytics help users visualize, understand, and communicate their health data. The core features include:

• Tracking: Flourish has customizable categories to fit diverse patient needs. It guides, rather than dictates, how users can track.

• Analytics: Flourish doesn’t just help patients display their data - it also helps them understand and communicate insights about their health.

• Motivation: Flourish brings delight to this draining process and promotes personal growth by enabling users to set goals for themselves.

• Onboarding: Flourish involves a quick and painless onboarding process. It gathers basic information to make tracking recommendations.