Objective Adrenal insufficiency is a life‐threatening chronic disease with limited patient educational resources. We used human‐centered design (HCD) to co‐design an adrenal insufficiency patient education toolkit. Background HCD encompasses methodologies centered around the user to co‐create tailored solutions to address the problem. In healthcare, HCD has been used to develop shared decision‐making tools and interventions. The aim of this study was to develop an educational toolkit for individuals living with adrenal insufficiency. To achieve this, academics and clinicians collaborated with patients and human‐centered designers to co‐create practical and intuitive patient educational resources and treatment plans. Methods The toolkit was developed through a HCD process—discovery, ideation, prototyping, design iterations, usability testing, and implementation. At each step, the human‐centered designer worked alongside endocrinologists and patient partners in collaborative co‐design sessions. Results The toolkit consisted of two handouts: a patient education resource including causes and symptoms of adrenal insufficiency/crisis, prevention and treatment, circumstances to seek healthcare, web resources, and a personalized treatment plan for stress dosing of adrenal hormone replacement with common scenarios and suggested dosing. Usability testing of the toolkit with 11 patients demonstrated that the toolkit was intuitive and practical, and all participants reported that they would use the toolkit to guide self‐management decisions. Conclusion Our toolkit development process illustrates the value of HCD in healthcare. By collaborating with human‐centered designers and patient partners, we created an educational resource that was intuitive and practical for those affected by adrenal insufficiency.
Sinclair et al. (Thu,) studied this question.