Inner Compass Initiative
Provides those tapering with information about how to prepare, safely taper, and survive withdrawal.
Designing and developing a citizen-science platform for tapering patients
A UW PHD candidate brings together researchers, designers, and developers to create two products for her dissertation: an app to track tapering progress, and my project, a citizen-science platform to collect data from tapering patients.
Context
What is tapering?
Tapering is the process of gradually reducing the dosage of a psychiatric medication. It is an extremely difficult and often isolating process as patients battle a range of withdrawl symptoms. It is underresearched, and patients are often provided with little guidance and resources from doctors or medical professionals.
Due to a lack of resources or process for tapering, patients often use a series of disparate tools to track their progress. These can range from journal entries, to spreadsheets and AI chat logs.
Research
Competitive analysis and existing solutions
We looked into existing websites, apps, and support forums, and identified where they fell short.
Surviving Antidepressants
A patient-led website providing peer support to those tapering, containing FAQs, and spaces for those tapering to discuss their experiences.
CureTogether
A platform that allowed patients to anonymously track their symptoms, treatments, medications, and side effects, simultaneously collecting data about hundreds of medical conditions.
We found that although tracking platforms exist, there are no available platforms that process and store existing tapering data in different forms.
Design
Early concepts
Development
Building the platform
Our solution introduces a website where patients can voluntarily upload and store their data in one place. We can use this data to gain valuable insights into the tapering process. By analyizng the data, we can improve the tapering process for future patients.