Four codesign students improve the experience of home chemotherapy treatment for leukemia patients in collaboration with Odense University Hospital and Rigshospitalet. Both hospitals were so pleased with the results that they have chosen to continue the collaboration. Read more, see their video here …
Home chemotherapy is a new form of treatment that allows patients to take their chemo “to go”, instead of staying at the hospital – an environment known as a breeding ground for infection. When patients stay home, they are more active. They exercise more, see friends and family, catch fewer infections, eat more and sleep better – All of which leads to a quicker recovery. The treatment consists of an IV bag attached to an infusion pump, which is housed in a wearable “chemo bag” that the patient takes home. The original chemo bag couldn’t be washed or reused, was an eyesore and didn’t meet the hospital’s needs for hygiene and safety.
Upon entering the project, we used codesign tools and methods such as ethnographic interviews, workshops, design games, sketching and generative prototyping in an effort to unpack the problems surrounding home treatment. Throughout this process we gained insights from the project’s stakeholders, thereby enabling a comprehensive understanding of the problem from both the patient’s and the hospital’s side.
These findings informed our re-design of the chemo bag along with a collection of insights and inspiration for the future implementation of home treatment, a treatment form which is soon to be employed in hospitals throughout Denmark.
The design of the bag is based on different criteria and features that were found throughout our research. It’s a combination of thoughts and ideas from nurses, doctors, seamstresses and, of course, wonderful patients.
See the video that presents the project, and follow the next steps here:
http://www.chemotogoplease.dk/
The project is conducted by two second year students at the MA-program in Codesign:
Isabel Aagaard, Copenhagen, Denmark
Rie Grue, Copenhagen, Denmark
And two first year students at the same program
Melanie Povlitzki, Minneapolis, USA
Xénia Geller, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland
