Background: Advances in digital health pave the way for greater collaboration between individuals and healthcare professionals, promoting shared decision making and an autonomous approach towards optimising the health and wellbeing of diverse ageing populations. To date there are no studies investigating the development of a digital platform to enhance medication management for older people.
Aim: To codesign an online portal for older people that optimises medication management, provides easy access to consumer medicine resources, and tools for older people to identify and communicate their medicine goals with healthcare professionals.
Methods: A steering committee, which includes consumers and carers with lived-experience, and clinicians was formed to inform and guide the codesign. Face-to-face and virtual focus groups and interviews exploring the perspectives of older people and using technology to enhance medication management will be conducted. Focus group and interview questions will explore challenges of ageing and medications, and older adults’ preferences regarding design, type(s), and purpose of digital medication support technologies. De-identified surveys evaluating the user-experience and retrospective analyses of online portal usage (e.g., number of clicks and downloads) will be conducted. Data collection and analysis will occur iteratively to ensure a reflexive and iterative approach to inform the subsequent steps of the codesign.
Discussion: Preliminary findings have developed a minimum viable product in consultation with the project steering committee. Engagement with a tailored and user-friendly online medication platform may lead to improved health outcomes and empowered communities.