MDNews - Minnesota

"We have clients who assume that more data is better for people, but often we see that more data is just more data. You have to help people build a MENTAL MODEL of how it relates to them." —AUGUSTA MEILL, VICE PRESIDENT, CONTINUUM 34 | Twin Cities MD NEWS I MDNEWS.COM barriers may keep him from losing weight or taking medications on time. How can the medical profession help? Don't Treat Patients Like Consumers—They're Not! Gianna Ericson, senior strategist, service design with Continuum, and Augusta Meill, vice president, Continuum, argue that the categories of "patient" and "consumer" barely overlap. As patients, people don't feel much like consumers. They're purchasing services they wish they didn't need. They lack the necessary expertise to make technical health decisions. They're surrounded by a community of advisors, from Internet circles to insurers to caregivers, eager to direct their choices. Given the difficulty of achieving a perspective of enlightened selfinterest while throwing up into a commode, people look for guidance in making decisions. With a client base ranging from furniture maker Herman Miller to insurer United Healthcare, Continuum helps design healthcare experiences that can be as concrete as a waiting room chair or as conceptual as a process model. Part of the healthcare experience involves guiding patients through complex information. "We have clients who assume that more data is better for people," observes Meill, "but often we see that more data is just more data. You have to help people understand how that's useful to them, help them build a mental model of how it relates to the condition that they're dealing with or their state of mind and translate it for them." "You help them figure out what's relevant and what's not," Ericson adds. "When people are given a whole lot of information without a way to sort it, it can become pretty overwhelming." Does this mean that healthcare providers should lift some of the decision-making burden from patients' shoulders? And is that a paternalistic approach? The issue is far subtler, says Meill. Citing the Mayo Clinic's diabetes education cards, which offer simple checklists of benefits and drawbacks of diabetes treatment options, she says, "Oftentimes as designers of healthcare experiences, it is very easy to think if we design it in an ideal way, people will conform to that design, and we will shape them to our desires. But what we've found in our experience is that we have to really understand the people we're designing for—understand where they are, their needs and values—and design our experiences to those realities. It's certainly possible to effect behavioral change, but it has to be done with a lot of respect for where people are in their current mindset and thinking."

• Cover