Co-designing for the Triad: Design Considerations for Collaborative Decision-Making Technologies in Pediatric Chronic Care
This work addresses the problem of improving health outcomes for youth with chronic conditions by enhancing collaboration among patients, caregivers, and providers, though it is incremental as it builds on existing co-design methods.
The study tackled the challenge of collaborative decision-making in pediatric chronic care by conducting co-design workshops with youth, caregivers, and healthcare providers, identifying barriers like misaligned mental models and proposing design implications to support shared understanding.
In pediatric chronic care, the triadic relationship among patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers introduces unique challenges for youth in managing their conditions. Diverging values, roles, and asymmetrical situational awareness across decision-maker groups often hinder collaboration and affect health outcomes, highlighting the need to support collaborative decision-making. We conducted co-design workshops with 6 youth with chronic kidney disease, 6 caregivers, and 7 healthcare providers to explore how digital technologies can be designed to support collaborative decision-making. Findings identify barriers across all levels of situational awareness, ranging from individual cognitive and emotional constraints, misaligned mental models, to relational conflicts regarding care goals. We propose design implications that support continuous decision-making practice, align mental models, balance caregiver support and youth autonomy development, and surface potential care challenges. This work advances the design of collaborative decision-making technologies that promote shared understanding and empower families in pediatric chronic care.