Participatory Design in Health Sciences: Using Cooperative Experimental Methods in Developing Health Services and Computer Technology

Participatory design (PD) is a research approach to the development of technological solutions to real-world problems, an approach that shares many concerns and some of its roots with action research. In this article, the authors discuss their experience in conducting a PD research project intended to develop a technological and a related organizational intervention to support the treatment of foot ulcers for people with diabetes at home. They provide a historical overview of the PD approach and a description of how they used it in their research study. They describe their experience in conducting the research, including the participants' responses, the outcomes of the research, and the challenges confronted in bridging the practical and disciplinary issues that arose. In the conclusion, they propose that PD holds potential as a research approach that might effectively merge computer technology and health-related interventional research.