Innovating Dietary Treatment Management Solutions: Case Nutrilyser App
Luostarinen, Niina (2024)
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024120533240
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024120533240
Tiivistelmä
The purpose of this thesis is to ideate service solutions for dietary treatment of people with heterogenous functional bowel symptoms. The aim is to ideate service solutions with potential users and healthcare professionals, as well as gather feedback on service solutions for the commissioner. The commissioner is a potential health technology start-up Nutrilyser, looking for opportunities to innovate on diet and lifestyle management mobile services. The development task was to investigate the needs of people with dietary treatments, specifically young women in Finland with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a disorder of the gut-brain interaction.
The research draws from nutrition science, value creation, and innovation in start-up context. Stanford University’s biodesign process for innovating medical technologies forms the backbone of this research, concentrating on the first two phases: identify and invent. An abductive approach integrating theory and practice in turns included desk research, market analysis on competitors, semi-structured interviews of patients and healthcare professionals, as well as observation, autoethnography, and a stakeholder workshop. The sequential explorative approach was concluded with two surveys to confirm results. The end results of this research were visualized for the commissioner in the form of empathy maps, personas, patient journey maps, a service blueprint, and a wireframe prototype, among others. Per the commissioner’s request, focus shifted midway toward diabetes management.
The findings show that varied causes for IBS and its symptoms hinder reaching a conclusive diagnosis, which is specifically made harder by other simultaneous health conditions. IBS requires a holistic approach to treatment as it cannot be cured, but lack of resources and knowledge often leads to lacking treatment. The current service solutions were not found satisfactory, and interviewed professionals suggested that a centralized treatment path could be created online in the Terveyskylä online service. Participants saw potential in a mobile healthcare service tailoring care, but food analysis and using artificial intelligence suggested by Nutrilyser were seen somewhat problematic due to the newness and complexity of the development target.
The study concludes that potential users are unique, so regardless of the chosen target diagnosis or health condition, a service solution should be tailorable to support multiple health conditions. Incorporating machine learning and data from multiple sources, such as wearable health devices, offers possibilities for Nutrilyser but require significant development efforts. There is potential, however, for a customizable dietary management and analysis solution to serve a wide range of potential customers regardless of diagnosis.
The research draws from nutrition science, value creation, and innovation in start-up context. Stanford University’s biodesign process for innovating medical technologies forms the backbone of this research, concentrating on the first two phases: identify and invent. An abductive approach integrating theory and practice in turns included desk research, market analysis on competitors, semi-structured interviews of patients and healthcare professionals, as well as observation, autoethnography, and a stakeholder workshop. The sequential explorative approach was concluded with two surveys to confirm results. The end results of this research were visualized for the commissioner in the form of empathy maps, personas, patient journey maps, a service blueprint, and a wireframe prototype, among others. Per the commissioner’s request, focus shifted midway toward diabetes management.
The findings show that varied causes for IBS and its symptoms hinder reaching a conclusive diagnosis, which is specifically made harder by other simultaneous health conditions. IBS requires a holistic approach to treatment as it cannot be cured, but lack of resources and knowledge often leads to lacking treatment. The current service solutions were not found satisfactory, and interviewed professionals suggested that a centralized treatment path could be created online in the Terveyskylä online service. Participants saw potential in a mobile healthcare service tailoring care, but food analysis and using artificial intelligence suggested by Nutrilyser were seen somewhat problematic due to the newness and complexity of the development target.
The study concludes that potential users are unique, so regardless of the chosen target diagnosis or health condition, a service solution should be tailorable to support multiple health conditions. Incorporating machine learning and data from multiple sources, such as wearable health devices, offers possibilities for Nutrilyser but require significant development efforts. There is potential, however, for a customizable dietary management and analysis solution to serve a wide range of potential customers regardless of diagnosis.