Design of Technology and Technology of Design. Activity Analysis as a Resource for a Personalised Approach for Patients with Parkinson Disease

Using a personalised medicine perspective, ECOTECH aims at developing new tools and methodologies to characterise and overcome at-risk situations for patients with Parkinson's disease in their daily life activity. With the cooperation of a multidisciplinary research group, patient situations have been studied in real life context in both hospital environment and home and community settings. Gait, in particular, has been assessed by combining data from an onboard sensor system, ethnographic observations and self-confrontation interviews. We discuss the results of this study with respect to the so-called activity analysis framework which is considered both as a resource for the design of new technologies and as a technology of design in the healthcare domain. In particular, we consider the potential for innovations regarding here, with the integration of onboard sensors, 1) the design of training 2) the design of artefact and work formats 3) the design of new mechanisms for health knowledge generation and validation.