Defining the Problem Space
03/20/17—First meeting after spring break
During our first meeting back, our group focussed on scoping our interests to help prepare for our service proposal. Through our research we discovered two issues that peaked our interest, the first being the radical prices involved with asthma treatment and the lack of adequate insurance, and the second, the social stigmas and issues around inclusion and not being able to join a game of tag.
Based on our research and our interests, our broadly identified two initial concepts for the type of service we might provide:
- “Changing” play time: Less cardio games, No segregation, “Take care of your medical issue” time, After school activity/program
- “Breathe Mobile”: Accessible “small” medical help, free medical services, targeting lower income communities
We believe that as we discover any constrictions and also who we will be able to interview our service concept will change. Though to begin the research process we’ve created the beginning of a list of possible interviewees. We have each started conversations with a couple people on the list, simply reaching out to gauge who might be available for future interviewing.
Schools:
- Local teacher, parents, coaches, school directors, doctors, nurses, NGO’s
- Director of the junior school at Shadyside Academy; other people at Shadyside Academy
- Director of Upper school at Winchester Thurston school
- Art teacher at South Hills Middle School. There are low-income students there although they’re a little older than our age group
- Physical Ed. Coordinator
Carnegie Mellon:
- Children’s School (CMU)
- Gym Teacher // CMU x-fit gym class teachers have often taught at secondary schools
- CMU professors
Medical & Organizations:
- Mc Gee Hospital
- UPMC
- Pittsburgh Care Mobile
- Physio/physical therapist (in training)
- First Aid Trainer
- Asthma Organization
- Ronald McDonald house
- Shadyside Boys and Girls club
To end our meeting we created a draft email that could be sent out to any contact that briefly explains the project and our reason for reaching out. We also began draft interview questions and loose scripts. This process helped us to define what kind of information we are looking for and helped us to clarify our purpose.
03/20 — First class after spring break
Our meeting the evening before class helped us get ahead and use our class time effectively. We started out by sending out a couple initial emails to possible interviewees, then began to look more deeply into two possible service areas.
A mobile medical service that focuses on providing accessible medical treatment and services to lower income communities.
A recreational service that focuses on managing stigma and promoting physical and mental health in an inclusive way.
As we do more research and understand any limitations we may have, we will decide which service, or a combination of the two services, to follow through with. To help with this decision we have thought of three scales to plot the service ideas on: complexity, control, and severity. For instance providing a medical service may deal with more severe issues, such as access to doctors and medication, but may be too complex, or simply out of our control. We may be able to have much more control over the recreational service, and we may be able to adjust the complexity, but it may not be handling very severe issues.
For each service we began to list the research questions, issues (pain points), stakeholders, and values. We realized that we have had a tendency of being overly broad so we used this exercise to be as specific as possible. This helped us create more tangible preliminary ideas of what our services might look like.
We then each consolidated our ideas of the services into a single phrase to help lead us towards a possible service proposition:
(Our service) is a (blank) that provides (value) + (value) by doing (action) + (action)
Medical Service:
- Our ‘Medical Service’ is a community based accessible service to asthma care that provides medical evaluations and care and thorough asthma education by providing free access to doctors and free insurance consultations.
- Our service is a medical service that provides mobile health services and education by supplying free doctors/pharmacist in a mobile unit.
- Our service is a medical service that provides help to lower income groups by supplying expensive medical equipments
- Our medical service is a mobile clinic that educates and provides access to health care by teaching families how to treat asthma at home and providing necessary medical care for families who have difficulty accessing medical services for treating asthma.
Recreational Service:
- Our ‘Recreational Service’ is a community based service for child care that provides an inclusive environment and health and asthma education by providing free child supervision and physical education.
- Our service is a recreational community program that provides safe physical activities for asthmatic/non-asthmatic children and care by supplying healthcare services and fun activities after school.
- Our service is an educational service that teaches asthmatic kids self management techniques by doing fun activities and demos.
- Our service is a recreational service that addresses social anxiety of asthmatic kids by including their friends in making a more inclusive environment.
- Our recreational service is an after-school program that provides a safe space for kids who suffer from asthma (and those who do not) and encourages better physical health by having kids engage in asthma-friendly activities.
We also understand that a critical part of this project is the effective use and implication of data. We began to list some sources that may be relevant to either the medical or the recreational service. This is an area we have to look more deeply into, and will likely help to define our service.
Possible data sources:
- Weather
- Allergy season/pollen
- Awareness — asthma education
- Health insurance statistics
- What areas are low-income
- What areas are lacking in access to medical care (for asthma)
- Location of medical offices in relation to areas that need care
- Percentage of kids that feel “left out” due to asthma? (are there surveys out there idk)
