Challenge Question
What communication is important for patients and their families and how can it be conveyed?
Project Source: Activate!Vaughan
Project Summary
Miscommunication in healthcare environments can be frustrating at best and life-threatening at worst. In order to ensure effective care and successful health outcomes, it is imperative that healthcare providers are able to keep patients and families informed about essential information throughout the care journey, including pre- and post-operative instructions, and that patients are able to communicate their health histories and symptoms. Communication is also important for eliminating patient anxiety and assisting patients and visitors in navigating hospitals and clinical environments. This project aims to identify the primary communication challenges faced by healthcare providers, patients, and families and develop a technological platform to facilitate communication and information sharing among these groups. The research team will consider how to engage family members in a patient’s care journey so that they are equipped to support and aid in their care; how to optimize communication to ensure that patients and their families provide, receive, and understand essential information at all stages of care, including before they even enter the hospital environment; and how to address and overcome language barriers by creatively communicating essential information. Students interested in this project do not need to be in medical fields but might be interested in health/healthcare systems, communications, the social sciences, and design. The team should have members with experience in web/app development, as they will be creating a technology-based communication platform that incorporates an intuitive and accessible user interface for an audience mostly comprised of patients, is accessible to patients who do not own or use a smartphone, allows for frequent and rapid information updates, presents information in a concise and digestible manner, and incorporates engaging content/design. The platform should also enable multiple language options, so students with knowledge of non-English languages are encouraged. This challenge originated from the ActivateVaughan website, and team members will be working with a York University mentor rather than a mentor from the organization.
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Organizational Profile
Activate!Vaughan is the City of Vaughan’s new innovation program, created to encourage local businesses and entrepreneurs to collaborate, pitch, and present solutions that will advance innovation and environmental sustainability in Vaughan and beyond. The Activate!Vaughan Innovation Challenge empowers the city’s businesses to work together to move new ideas forward and rethink the way organizations operate. Through the program, local startups can connect with business leaders, gain market knowledge, and pitch to earn funding. Corporate enterprise partners will gain access to local entrepreneurs who can help generate solutions to sustainability challenges such as packaging innovations, energy-saving technologies, creative waste-reduction methods, and resource-sharing opportunities.
Partner Website
Learn more about the kind of work the project partner does by browsing their website.
Additional Resources
TBD
Key Words
- Healthcare
- Patient Experience
- Communication
- Digital Platform