Echo aims to tackle stress and other issues associated with diabetes that can cause depression and other issues. Echo is a healthcare platform that records glucose levels in the blood, interacts with diabetes patients to assist in managing these levels, and supports mental care by meticulously analyzing patients’ sentiments through a mobile service.

Echo seeks to change negative thought patterns that patients might develop while suffering diabetes. As such, Echo provides appropriate behavioral therapy to minimize the depression and stress caused by diabetic problems and improves the quality of life in different aspects of daily life.

Problem and Solution

The number of people with diabetes at a young age has increased due to an increase in changed eating habits and lethargic living conditions. People diagnosed with diabetes usually develop high psychological distress that causes negative self control of their blood sugar levels.

Idea

Young diabetes patients with depression and stress further exacerbate their blood sugar control, disrupting their own self-care and facilitating negative thoughts. To sustain their conditions, patients should reschedule and advance their self-care based on their mutually recorded experiences.

Echo aims to promote a healthy lifestyle to maintain patients’ health under the chronic conditions of diabetes. Patients will ultimately become resilient against the mental and physical detriment. This will also motivate patients to actively engage in self-care. This virtuous cycle may boost the patient’s confidence to focus on self-care.

Form

For diabetes patients, it is crucial to monitor their condition. However, the fact that they have to manage a large amount of data makes them stressed. As a result, they start avoiding their own self-care. Echo’s unique visual interface is designed with users in mind, which makes it easier for patients to acquire their own data. To view the data on the blood glucose levels, the patient must zoom in on the graph. This enables the realization of each element’s effect on the blood glucose levels. Moreover, they can understand the effect of each element on blood glucose levels, which in turn will push them to engage in checking their blood glucose levels on daily basis.

Function

Echo provides messages for patients to check their habits and enable them to record their data with a simple categorical choice, which can then be displayed on a magnified graph. If the graph shows the patient’s life track in the wrong direction, Echo will synchronously provide therapy to put the patient back on a healthy track.

The users can record new changes in their lifestyle and identify new problems. When a user makes a new solution to the problem, this will be saved as a card in the user’s palette, so the user can share it as an experience with others. This will enhance the user’s confidence while managing a healthy lifestyle.

Differentiation

The existing diabetes platforms mainly utilize insulin care to tackle diabetic problems. Echo focuses on patients’ lifestyles by providing a palette function. It allows them to actively redefine their problems by reviewing their shared experiences. Palette will prepare diabetes for a new change in their surroundings, supplying them with information in advance to defend new changes.

Echo’s therapy platform provides well-known cognitive behavioral therapy solutions for diabetic problems. It intends to minimize depression and stress, ultimately improving the quality of life in different aspects of daily life.

Impact

Diabetes patients, especially those in their 20s, have increased due to improper intake habits and changes in living conditions. Most of these young patients are diagnosed with high psychological distress that worsens their health outcomes with poor blood sugar control. Nevertheless, it is difficult to find a service that improves patients’ habits. Echo provides a platform for patients to modify their habitual activities positively by boosting their self-care. It is based on participatory activities, which has been proven as an effective method. Participatory treatment eventually helps doctors to diagnose patients accurately and effectively.

Echo – Healthcare Digital Service Design – Magnify Graph/ Copyright © Hyojeong Jin & Hwang Kim 2021

Echo – Healthcare Digital Service Design – Palette/ Copyright © Hyojeong Jin & Hwang Kim 2021

Palette

Reviewing experience will allow users to refer to their previous experiences or their peers’ experiences when planning new changes.

When a solution is saved as a card in a user’s palette, it can be shared as an experience with peers. This will enhance the user’s confidence while managing their daily lifestyle activities.

Echo – Healthcare Digital Service Design – Therapy/ Copyright © Hyojeong Jin & Hwang Kim 2021

Therapy

Echo offers a questionnaire for patients to check their own conditions through answering simple questions. Patients can provide information about problematic behaviors that are related to cognitive conditions. Based on the input, Echo offers solutions from experts and comments by other users.

Echo enables its users to share their experiences and symptoms. This can possibly help other patients with the same experiences and symptoms.

Echo – Healthcare Digital Service Design – Echo message, Talk/ Copyright © Hyojeong Jin & Hwang Kim 2021

Echo Message

Users can engage in small chat sessions with other diabetes patients to exchange their experiences. This can enhance their motivation and analyze their activities for self-care.

Echo – Healthcare Digital Service Design/ Copyright © Hyojeong Jin & Hwang Kim 2021