Accounting for Medication Particularities: Designing for Everyday Medication Management

Several projects have shown that self-management of medication in private homes can be challenging. Many projects focused on specific illness-related approaches (e.g. diabetes) or practical issues such as how to handle medication while travelling. However, designing for everyday medication management involves more than just specific illness-related strategies and should take into account the broad set of activities conforming people’s everyday life. This study investigates how older adults manage their medication in everyday life. To inform the design of pervasive healthcare medication management systems (PHMMS), the study calls for attention to medication-specific particularities that account for: according to need medication, the heterogeneous care network, the substitute medication, the medication informational order, the shared responsibility and the adjustment of medication intake. These medication particularities can enhance the individual’s medication overview and support the understanding of medication intake in everyday life. The study also presents five design principles for future design of PHMMS.