Week 8: Conceptualization

This week I started brainstorming ideas for a potential concept to alleviate patient anxiety around major eye procedures.

Earlier I had said that I was considering a communication approach specifically because I was stuck on the idea of patient testimonials as the solution to my problem statement. However, I temporarily suspended this idea so I could take a broader look at potential solutions.

Under Anuprita’s recommendation, I categorized my solutions under different approaches for potentially alleviating pre-op anxiety.

One concept I’ve been particularly excited about is a visual simulator to calm patient fears about the actual events of the procedure ( pertaining to cataracts in particular). If you were to look up images of the surgery, you might be horrified by the uncomfortably graphic pictures of a surgeon operating on an eye with a trove of sharp surgical tools. However, while patients are often awake during the surgery, what they actually see is quite different from the outsider perspective.

According to a wide array of scholarly articles documenting patient’s visual experiences of cataract surgery, they recall seeing an array of colors, flashes of light, abstract images, and vague perception of objects. The procedure lasts about 10–20 minutes, and is painless, although most patients describe a “mild sensation of pressure around the eye”.

These studies included patient recollections of their visual experiences.

I believe creating a simulator for pre-op patients of what they will experience could replace the diagrams and graphic images in their minds with these abstract visualizations. At minimum, the studies report that exposure to the artist recollections helped the patients feel more prepared for the experience so they were not alarmed by the flashes of light.