Hospice@Home: A User-Centred Digital Solution for Enhanced Home-Based Palliative Care

Why It Matters

As the demand for palliative care grows, particularly in home settings, designers must create intuitive and integrated digital tools. These tools can bridge communication gaps, monitor patient well-being, and support caregivers, ultimately improving the quality of life for individuals receiving end-of-life care.

Key Finding

The Hospice@Home digital system effectively integrated various health data streams and showed promise in supporting home-based palliative care, indicating good initial usability and feasibility.

Key Findings

• The Hospice@Home system successfully integrated wearable biosignal data (blood pressure, pulse, sleep, oxygen saturation) and self-reported symptoms (temperature, pain, bowel movements).
• Medication compliance tracking was integrated via a smart medication box.
• The system demonstrated preliminary usability and feasibility among patients and caregivers during a 3-week beta test.

Research Evidence

Aim: To develop and evaluate the usability and feasibility of a digital system designed to support home-based palliative care for patients with terminal cancer and their caregivers.

Method: Human-centered design, Usability testing, Pilot study

Procedure: The Hospice@Home system was developed using a human-centered, evidence-driven approach. Initial alpha testing with simulated patients assessed system functionality. A 3-week beta test was conducted with patient-caregiver dyads, involving structured observation, task completion monitoring, user feedback, field notes, and technical logs to evaluate usability and feasibility.

Sample Size: 7 participants (5 patients, 2 caregivers in beta test; 2 simulated patients in alpha test)

Context: Home-based palliative care for terminal cancer patients

Design Principle

Integrate diverse data streams within a user-friendly interface to provide comprehensive support in home-based care settings.

How to Apply

When designing remote patient monitoring systems, ensure they can aggregate data from multiple sources (wearables, manual input) and are tested rigorously with the target user group to ensure ease of use and practical benefit.

Limitations

Small sample size and short duration of the beta test may limit generalizability; the study focused on a specific patient group (terminal cancer).

Student Guide (IB Design Technology)

Simple Explanation: This study shows how to build a digital tool for people needing hospice care at home. It combines data from smartwatches and what the patient reports, plus tracks medicine, making it easier for them and their helpers.

Why This Matters: It demonstrates a practical approach to using technology to improve care for people who need it most, highlighting the importance of user needs in the design process.

Critical Thinking: How might the integration of more advanced AI for predictive analytics further enhance the value of such a system, and what ethical considerations would need to be addressed?

IA-Ready Paragraph: The development of the Hospice@Home system highlights the critical role of user-centred design in creating effective digital health solutions for home-based palliative care. By integrating wearable biosignal data, patient self-reported symptoms, and medication adherence tracking, the system aimed to enhance care delivery and communication. This approach, validated through pilot testing, underscores the importance of a holistic and user-focused methodology when designing for complex healthcare needs.

Project Tips

• When designing for healthcare, consider how different data inputs can be combined into one easy-to-understand interface.
• Think about the support needs of both the primary user (patient) and secondary users (caregivers).

How to Use in IA

• Reference this study when discussing the development of user-centred digital health solutions, particularly for remote or home-based care scenarios.
• Use it to justify the integration of multiple data sources (e.g., sensors, self-reporting) in your own design project.

Examiner Tips

• Ensure your design process clearly shows how user needs and feedback informed the development of the solution, especially when dealing with sensitive user groups.
• Demonstrate how your design addresses potential challenges in data integration and user adoption.

Independent Variable: ["Development of the Hospice@Home system features (data integration, user interface)","User interaction with the system"]

Dependent Variable: ["System usability (measured by task completion, observation, user feedback)","System feasibility","Identification of implementation challenges"]

Controlled Variables: ["Type of device used (Android)","Duration of beta test (3 weeks)","Patient demographic characteristics (terminal cancer)"]

Strengths

• Employed a human-centered design approach.
• Integrated multiple data sources for a comprehensive view of patient status.
• Conducted a pilot study with real users (patient-caregiver dyads).

Critical Questions

• What were the specific usability issues encountered, and how were they addressed?
• How might the system's effectiveness differ across various chronic illnesses or age groups beyond terminal cancer patients?

Extended Essay Application

• Investigate the potential for a digital platform to support a specific underserved population, detailing the user research, design process, and prototyping.
• Explore the integration of biometric data from wearables into a design for health monitoring, focusing on user experience and data interpretation.

Source

Evaluation of Hospice@Home for Home-Based Palliative Care: Development and Usability Pilot Study · JMIR Formative Research · 2026 · 10.2196/79334