Presentation: Thursday, March 30

Published in

FunHaler

4 min readMar 30, 2017

Adella Guo, Caroline Hermans, Jesse Wilson, Joy Xiaonan Chen, Adena Lin

Summary

How can we transform the perception of Asthma and normalize illness? How can we empower illness? Can asthma even be cool?
We are still deciding between two service propositions.

Initial Brainstorming

What is Asthma? What causes it? Who is involved? What’s it like to have an asthma attack? How does socioeconomic status affect asthma care? How do schools treat kids with asthma?

Secondary Research

Research Findings

Triggers/Management
Medicine/Medical Issues
Kid’s Perspective
Competitive Analysis
Restrictions on Daily Life
Caregiver’s Point of View

Stakeholder Map Centered Around Kids

Research through Online Forums

Key Research Insights

Kids with asthma can feel uncomfortable and isolated because it makes them feel different
When kids don’t understand something, it can be scary
Communication between various care givers is an unsolved problem (parents, teachers, babysitters, camp counselors, doctors, substitutes)

Problem Space Brainstorm

We identified 4 problem spaces based on our research:

Medical (Data Tracking) — Improve diagnoses and prescriptions
Emotional Support (Providing comfort and consultation) —Boost self management
Social (Bullying, Fitting In) — Transform perception
Communication (relationships between kid, parent, school, doctor) — Effective communication channels

*The blue post-it notes below are all from our brainstorming session

Five big ideas

Concept #1 — AsthmAcademy

AsthmAcademy is a service concept aimed at helping schools learn and support students with asthma and other disorders/conditions. It is based on the idea that the more asthma is brought out into the open, the less suspicious it is.

“Caroline, I feel so strongly about it that I think it should be mandatory, and I think it should be every year.” – Lena Romanoff, ex Kindergarten teacher

This service consists of three tiers:

Teir 1: Open Source Materials

Our materials would be offered as free downloadable content at no charge. This can include everything from instructional videos to PDF’s highlighting action plans to improve interactions within the classroom. This would be aimed at schools or teachers that do not have a budget but still are interested in making a difference.

Teir 2: Online Purchases

In addition to the open source materials in the first tier, we would offer a suite of physical objects to assist in classroom activities. One example would be a non-medicated inhaler and an Asthma Teddy Bear that would help the teachers to demonstrate what the inhaler is and how it works.

Tier 3: In-School Consultation

This is the meat of our concept. At a school’s request, a team of Asthma Experts would spend a day or more at a school helping to implement our action plans. This would include the following:

Small group workshops with students to demonstrate what an inhaler is and how it works and to reduce the stigma of asthma.
Workshops only with teachers to ensure that they are properly prepared to deal with an asthmatic student.
Consultations with school leadership at ways they can easily make their school more asthma friendly. This can include implementing an alternative recess that gives all children an alternative to recess that is less physically demanding, but still engaging to them.

Note: We realize that the numbers of students in any given school with asthma may be low and thus reduce the need for this service, however this concept need not be limited to asthma. This service could include options to introduce and demystify a variety of conditions and ailments that children regularly face, which could help to further justify the cost for this service to schools.