Giving presence

Connecting clinically isolated patients with their loved ones?

We were approached by Trigger, a social impact community interest company, to help realise a concept which would enable people to send messages and music to patients in the care system, many of which did not have their own devices or could not have visitors do to lockdown restrictions.

Interviews with care staff.

Brand workshop

Qualitative testing of early-stage prototypes

A crucial part of the project was establishing the most appropriate way to deliver the audio stream to patients. As a medium that almost everyone is used to, a telephony platform was our initial plan. Whilst the voice messages worked well here, the audio compression of most phone lines made the music sound more like what one might hear whilst being on hold to a utility company. The tonal range just wasn’t clear enough.

We found that many of the users leaving messages were not comfortable recording heartfelt messages on a computer so it was imperative that we allowed them to record voice messages via telephone and that it was just the point of delivery at which we would leverage the bandwidth afforded by the web.

Clinical restrictions meant that user-testing was carried out with actors. The number of different actors needed to represent all parties involved brought its own challenges, so we created service design blueprints to help map the user journeys and the respective touchpoints.

Our development of the WithYou platform resulted in widespread recognition and placing as a finalist for the most promising pilot at the HeathTech Awards 2021.

Given the sensitive nature of patient outcomes amongst those in clinical isolation, we felt it would be inappropriate to seek feedback from the families of the patients so instead, we surveyed staff at the care partners. Jo, a frontline worker at Cardiff Hospital, said that ‘this could make the difference as to whether someone pulls through or not’. Another hospital reported noticeable changes in their vital signs.

The patient I played it to today was intubated and unconscious, but occasionally tries to move or has erratic heart beats etc. When I played the messages she was visibly calm and settled. The nurses were all very excited about the fact we could play messages from family members. So once again, just thought you should know your technology is having a very real and tangible effect on patients

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