Revolutionizing design for DTx: Shaping the future of healthcare

Amongst the rapidly emerging technological advancements, digital therapeutics has been one of the most significant innovations we continue to witness in the field of healthcare. Its global market value is projected to reach $28.66 billion by 2030. As we navigate through this intersection of technology and healthcare, it is crucial to understand how to design user-centred digital therapeutic experiences. 

Partnerships with some of the leading giants in the healthcare and digital therapeutics industry have driven Think Design towards efficient frameworks and design processes that power improved experiences. We bring this expertise to the ever-evolving industry to create stellar and meaningful changes for the new-age audience.

What is Digital Therapeutics (DTx)?

Digital therapeutics is largely focused on the prevention and management of medical disorders, including diabetes, epilepsy, cardiovascular health, mental health, etc. Unlike the usual wellness apps highly consumed by global users, DTx applications adhere to rigorous validation processes to ensure their efficacy. Ultimately,  the aim is to utilize the power of intelligent technology to aid individuals in managing their chronic health problems.

Designing Powerful Digital Experiences 

At Think Design, we recognize that successful DTx solutions are those that seamlessly integrate into users' lives, allow improved interactions, and assist in smoother clinical operations. Hence, our approach to  designing digital therapeutic experiences is grounded in a deep understanding of both healthcare and user-centred design principles. 
While designing these successful experiences, we ensure to always incorporate several key aspects: 

1. Progress-Driven User Experiences

Conducting in-depth user research helps us understand the needs, challenges, and motivations of patients and healthcare providers. This directs us towards better techniques that facilitate behavioural changes of patients during and after medical procedures, helping us gain insights that power exciting data visualizations that encourage user engagement in the most impactful manner. 

2. Regulatory Compliant Design Processes

Our design processes are backed by rigorous research. Through close collaborations with experts, researchers, clinicians, and medical technologists, we pay attention to creating products that adhere to all regulatory guidelines set for SaMDs (Software as Medical Devices). We ensure our interventions are regulatory compliant and clinically effective to create medically accurate user experiences.

3. Facilitating Behavioural Change

DTx—like other experiential innovations—often aims to facilitate behavioural change, whether it is adopting better habits or adhering to medication routines. Designing experiences for behaviour change requires a keen understanding of habitual behaviour and the gamification of interfaces, catalyzed by factors  including social sharing, rewards, leaderboard mechanisms, interactive avatars, etc.

4. Creating Future-Facing Solutions

In the rapidly evolving landscape of healthcare technology, interoperability is paramount. As a result, we strive to create modular and adaptable designs that can seamlessly integrate with supplementary monitoring and tracking apps and products that ensure data safety and security as personalized interconnected healthcare networks continue to grow. This facilitates automation in medical operations, saves time on manual data entry, triggers alerts in case of emergency, and reduces patients’ dependency on caretakers.

What Does the Future Look Like?

As we continue to work with companies boasting years of legacy yet on the cusp of innovation , we work towards leveraging the advancement in digital therapeutics and healthcare. We believe that the future of this industry is brimming with potential. And as it continues to evolve, we anticipate several exciting trends in the following sectors:

1. Automation Technology

Advanced AI algorithms may drive analytical systems, acting as predictive help to healthcare professionals and users alike, and  facilitating process automation across the industry. This may quicken the user experiences regardless of the medium of contact, ensuring appropriate aid is provided during medical emergencies and incidents.  

2. Global Accessibility

To match pace with the ever-evolving scope of DTx, design would need to make room for cultural and regional nuances, assess a broader range of medical conditions, and deliver localized services to ensure users worldwide receive better healthcare experiences.

3. Holistic Ecosystem

Healthcare products and solutions across the globe currently focus on patients alone. However, the healthcare providers and caregivers are a major part of the industry. We are slowly acknowledging how essential it is to accommodate them into the user pool and create a cohesive ecosystem for all. With the industry slowly moving towards creating inclusive experiences, we may soon see products and apps that cater to users, healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies , and other relevant personnel involved in revolutionizing the world of digital healthcare.  

The design of DTx experiences is a multidimensional endeavour that requires a well-balanced blend of user-centred design, innovative technology, and clinical expertise. As we navigate this transforming landscape, the collaboration between medical professionals and designers will be the key to a future where digital therapeutic experiences will be an integral part of holistic patient care. At Think Design, we are excited to witness DTx grow into an essential extension of the healthcare industry.

The author is Chief Strategy Officer, Think Design Collaborative

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