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2024 Challenges in User-Centered Design

A panel at Pharmapack discussed competing challenges in designing healthcare packaging and devices, where sustainability or anti-counterfeiting may be in conflict with simplicity for the user.

From left at Pharmapack Europe: Tom Oakley, Springboard; Aline Noizet, Digital Health Connector; Oliver Haferbeck, Gerresheimer; Eric Chanie, Merck; and James Fries, Rx-360.
From left at Pharmapack Europe: Tom Oakley, Springboard; Aline Noizet, Digital Health Connector; Oliver Haferbeck, Gerresheimer; Eric Chanie, Merck; and James Fries, Rx-360.

The packaging and med device communities are, of course, well-versed in the need for patient-centered design in boosting adherence. Nonadherence to drug treatment is estimated to be responsible for 125,000 deaths annually in the U.S. alone.

But with multi-faceted challenges, one-size-fits-all answers are hard to come by. Even among patient populations for a given therapy, there are differences in user abilities and it’s difficult to standardize a package or device for best use across all patients. At Pharmapack Europe, panelists were asked what challenges they still see in their respective areas.

Personalized dosing: Aline Noizet, founder of Digital Health Connector, noted that standardized dosing reduces efficacy. She explained of data from a recent Closed Loop Medicine presentation that many women are over-dosed, while patients over 80 kg are often underdosed. In tests, personalizing dosage for individuals showed efficacy in 80% of the cases.  “So it shows that there's really an issue here with having the right dose for the right person,” she said. Obviously, packaging plays a key role in unit dosing and while variable dosing options exist, some convenient solutions come pre-dosed.

A second, related problem that still needs to be addressed is inclusion in clinical trials. “We know that most of the drugs that exist today have been developed for white males. A consequence is that those drugs, those treatments are not so efficient for women, or for people of color, or different ethnicities,” she added.

Related reading: PFAS: Navigating Materials of Concern in Life Science Packaging

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