Re thinking obesity treatment

Challenge: The challenge is to find new ways to deliver person-centered care to many more patients through the Obesity Clinic. The clinic sees it necessary to utilise the health care staff in the most efficient way possible. They see that the use of digital tools may be part of the solution, since they can be used in telemedicine and can be distributed more easily among health care staff around region Stockholm.
Challenge Giver: The Obesity Clinic (Överviktscentrum), Region Stockholm
Redefined challenge: How can the Obesity clinic help people seeking care feel more empowered and access tools to live healthy lives in an obesogenic society? 
Solution: Sparky
Concept: Sparky is a reminder system that motivates people to take care of themselves by taking care of a digital character. Sparky is a cheerful lightbulb who changes expressions from sad and worn out, to happy and full of positive energy. He is highly customizable, and facilitates a direct connection between patients and caregivers at the Obesity Clinic.
Team: Team Spark
Jennie Gustafsson, Klara Hultin, Mohammed Jama, Peter Mcharo, Erika Råberg, Erik Skeppar

ABSTRACT

During the fall term of 2021, team Spark was introduced to a complex and urgent issue: rates of obesity are increasing here in Sweden, and it is a very challenging disease to treat. The challenge-givers were from the Överviktscentrum, or Obesity Clinic, a secondary carespecialist clinic within the public health care system in Region Stockholm. The following report details the challenge, process, and results from our design thinking approach to re-thinking treatment for obesity patients.

As a group, we went through the phases of Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test, resulting in five concepts. We began with a research phase, wherein we learned about the many factors which contribute to obesity. After numerous interviews with clinic staff and patients, we identified insights and our Point of View. From there, we developed our 5 Ideas. After working through a concept selection process, we decided on a digital tool called Sparky. Sparky is a customizable digital reminder tool by which taking care of a charming digital character – a lightbulb – the user is also taking care of his or her self. Clinic staff is therefore able to monitor patient’s activities, as things like healthy meals and walks are input into a daily dairy via the app. We are optimistic about Sparky’s potential to help obesity clinic patients as well as the population more broadly, due to its highly customizable nature.