Putting in place an IT platform for healthcare management

Purpose: Living Labs are a well established participatory approach to designing products and services that have been proven effective for promoting elderly's use of ICT devices in rural areas. They can also be used for developing ICT device designs tailored to the needs of specific populations^1-3. Our project uses the concept of Living Labs to create a systemic and participatory approach to providing health care and strengthening community in tribal areas. Method: We have recruited volunteers to experience the ICT project and provide feedback for ongoing product design in users' homes⁴. Moreover, we established a Living Labs facility by working with community leaders to mobilize neighborhood networks and bring prototype products to residents' lives, gaining partnerships in the process. These products measure blood sugar, blood pressure, and vital signs in order to test, monitor elders' needs. To further facilitate their health promotion activities, equipment such as chest pull, butterfly, barbell, band grip, treadmill, stepper, and upright stationary bike are provided in the community activity center. A training-trainers approach has been adopted for the leaders and senior volunteers of the Tribal Development Association. Beginning with tele-care technology to support health promotion and 'aging in place', neighborhood residents have been willing to take part in program/product design or feedback. Accordingly, we implemented a mutual assistance health promotion database in the community. Results & Discussion: The research team and the tribal association developed a user platform that linked social activities with health promotion5. An e-learning platform linked social networking, detailed oral history data archives, and health promotion/rehabilitation activities. The tribe now is not only regularly participating in the health promotion activities twice a week, but also actively incorporates such activities into their major cultural events. Mutual supportive health monitoring and promotion activities become inseparable parts in community events. In their well-established regular oral history taking project, those health promotion activities become part of their life narratives as well as new identities. Community-based systemic and sustainable health data collection was organized through health-related activities coordinated by the research team and the association leaders. These experiences are detailed in their oral history collections and serve as an important foundation to facilitate the development of the Living Lab. We thus pursued a solution for the innovation platform. Separation between the cultural domain and the health domain seems inevitable, although the tribal association revealed interpersonal links between the two types of activities.