Hear2Care

•

According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA) people with diabetes have two times the rate of hearing loss as people without the condition. This problem is 14% more significant for diabetic women. People with diabetes have a long to-do list when it comes to managing their condition every day. They need to monitor their blood sugar throughout the day, remember about medicines, eat diabetes-friendly diet, exercise regularly and make frequent visits to their doctors. Their life needs to be strictly organized with daily routines and duties in order to function normally. Researchers have also estimated, that only about 1% of patients time spent on managing their diabetes is done through health professionals. In the rest 99% of the time, patients are managing the disease on their own.

The goal of the project was to develop solutions that allow the user to:

● Be less uncomfortable/stigmatized by their disease.
● Be empowered using the hearing aid.
● Stay safe even in extreme or unusual situations.

With the solution, we are simulating the continuous blood sugar monitoring and integrating the Oticon hearing aids for a more intuitive communication of the user's condition.

In order to get an insight to the users behavior, qualitative interviews were performed to people with with diabetes. Working with a sensitive topic as diabetes, the group found it very relevant to talk with actual people who struggle with this disease in their everyday life.

Use scenario diagrams for our concept.

The target group is middle-aged and elderly people with diabetes and hearing loss, who may tend to be a little forgetful. Also, people that in general are struggling to keep track of the disease, either because they are new in it, or because their condition is characterized by big fluctuations.