Schmetterlinge im Bauch – Thyroid medicament Henning

Project partner: Sanofi-Aventis Germany

Challenge: „Design a practical tool that helps general practitioners to improve and facilitate the diagnosis and therapy of thyroid diseases for the sake of the patients’ health.“

 

AmiCura student team

 

During the research phase in the Design Thinking process, the student team conducted interviews with general practitioners (GPs), specialists, medical assistants and thyroid patients. After analyzing the interviews they decided to shift their focus from the general practitioners’ to the specialists’ needs. Some of the specialists had mentioned that it is rather difficult for GPs to recognize thyroid-related symptoms as they lack in-depth knowledge.

With AmiCura the Design Thinking team developed an information system for general practitioners that provides relevant information based on the patient’s symptoms. It features a digital questionnaire for the patient to record their case history. For GPs, it includes an information system that matches individual medical cases with current guidelines provided by specialists.  

The critical functions of AmiCura are to close knowledge gaps and to help GPs to have an easy access to current guidelines. It calls attention to disease patterns general practitioners might not have in mind. The aim is to support general practitioners in making the right diagnosis and to lower the rate of mistreatment for more satisfied GPs and patients.

The collaboration with the student team, insights from the design challenge and the application of the Design Thinking approach had a long-lasting effect on the project partner team at Sanofi. They started to apply a human-centered approach and introduced interdisciplinary workshops as well as meetings with employees from different departments. Following the implementation of the Design Thinking mindset, they have conducted co-creation workshops and hackathons with doctors. One of the results is a new website with an interactive chatbot for their customers.

Photo: HPI School of Design Thinking / Dirk Lässig