Rethinking Brain Health

Abstract

Project Supervisor: Youngbok Hong “Safe And Effective Deprescribing of Anticholinergics (SEDA)” project, led by Regenstrief Institute and IU Center for Aging and Eskenazi, focuses on patient safety harms from medications with anticholinergic effects. Drugs with anticholinergic effects have been implicated in cognitive impairment in older adults. The Rethinking Brain Health research project was conducted in the course of Collaborative Action Research in Design. Our team adopted a people-centered design approach, aimed to develop a behavioral and cultural understanding of brain safety issues related to anticholinergic medication. At the beginning of the research, we identified the key stakeholders as patients, family and community support, caregivers, registered nurses, care coordinators, pharmacists, primary doctors, and geriatricians in order to understand the complexity of the problems from multiple perspectives and a systematic view. The poster identifies 3 different personas that exemplify the major characteristics from the patients interviewed such as their communication with their provider, the sources of support, and their quality of life. It also shows the relationship between the patient and providers. By using research methods, we were able to gain a contextual understanding of the behaviors and the needs of patients and caregivers. This gigamap poster serves as a tool to reveal the interconnectedness of the problems associated with the patients’ experience with anticholinergics from the perspective of both the patient and provider. A deep understanding of the problems associated with anticholinergics helped us to identify the opportunity areas as assisting the patients’ support system in playing an active role in health decisions, assisting the patient in taking ownership of their health decisions and developing a holistic approach to treatment options, and creating a better information system between providers. Framing the problems into opportunities allows the SEDA team to take the next appropriate actionable steps in identifying appropriate solutions.