Over the past year, I have been doing a research project on #digital #design for #health #storytelling, so I wanted to put together a short thread on what I learned. The project goal was to understand how people with #ChronicIllness might use a tool to tell their stories. 1/

In the past 5 years, at least 3 projects in the UK have separately identified the need for people to have a health story alongside their medical record, including work done by @GSofA ( https://futurehealthandwellbeing.org/backpack ), but design+tech for this remains unrealized. 2/

Having a health story alongside one's medical record improves continuity of care when seeing new #HealthcareProfessionals , improves the quality of care by giving context, and also combats #HealthInequalities by giving people ownership and a voice in the care process. 3/

I worked closely with 5 people with multiple #ChronicIllness conditions to create visual representations of tools they would use, drawing from their personal health stories - example design here is for a self management story tool with a sport theme. 4/

The overall findings showed that people wanted to see the big picture of their health over time, convey their experiences to others, and also challenge scepticism by evidencing their conditions (a big issue for those with invisible illnesses like #MECFS and #ChronicPain ). 5/

My full thesis on #design for #health #storytelling can be found online on GSA's website - for those who want actionable points, jump to "Implications for Design" in the appendix. 6/
http://radar.gsa.ac.uk/7525/ 

Coming to the end of this project, I hope that this research can be useful to others - give me a DM if you are working on something adjacent and would like to know more about what I did, I would love to share. 7/