AB035. Patients and informal caregivers handling health conditions

Background: Our research in the area of “user innovation” has shown that patients, and their informal or non-professional caregivers, often develop innovative solutions to help them cope with their health condition. That same stream of research also concluded that these innovative solutions often improve the quality of life of the “the patient innovators” (or their caregivers) and, if shared with others living under similar conditions, can significantly impact the lives of others.

Methods: Since we increasingly live and work on online collaborative environments where the user can share, search and access information in a much faster, cost effective and efficient way, we have established an award-winning platform, www.patient-innovation.com aimed at empowering patients/caregivers under medical supervision and the support of two Nobel Laureates and other reputable individuals (e.g., Patient Innovation was named Non-profit Startup of the Year and recognized by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon).

Results: Over 700 innovations were submitted and screened from a community of over 50,000 patients/caregivers from the 5 continents.

Conclusions: In this poster we present some cases of patients and caregivers who developed innovative new solutions to help them cope with their diseases and critically discuss their similarities and differences.

Keywords: Patient innovation; caregivers; user innovation