ATEA FUTURE GROWTH

TEAM14, Digital Concept Development, Semester 1, Project 1, Group13

Project title - Insight Report

28.09.2016
GROUP MEMBERS
Andra Salcudean Miroslav Foltyn

Im a creative designer with a keen interest in Creative and structured.

UX design. Brainstorming is my favorite part in
the creative thinking process. Wouldnt work E-mail: miro.foltyn@gmail.com
without coffee. Phone: 42 72 50 62

E-mail: andr908w@stud.kea.dk
Phone: 91 43 43 84

Cristina Muntean Niels Posborg Klevin

I am an optimizer who strives to create great
Analytical, organized and detailed oriented, design based solutions. I have interests within
I applied my skills in the past 4 years in an in E-commerce, UX, design and drinking
advertising agency as a web architect. coffee.

E-mail: cristina.muntean90@gmail.com E-mail: nielsklevin@gmail.com

Phone: 81 74 99 94 Phone: 40 86 29 14

Michaela Bartkova

Detail oriented, creative, practical.I like to

work with ideas and build solutions upon
them. I love coffee and cakes, especially
during working on a project. :)

E-mail: mibi66@hotmail.com
Phone: 42 91 04 94

2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
GROUP MEMBERS 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS 3
PROBLEM AREA AND INTRODUCTION 4
CLIENT GOAL 5
PROBLEM FORMULATION  5
CONSTRAINTS 6
DELIMITATION 6
HYPOTHESIS 6
ANALYSIS 7
CONCLUSION 9
REFERENCE LIST 10
APPENDIX 11
Appendix 1 - Interview transcript  12
Appendix 2 - Interview transcript  16

3
PROBLEM AREA AND INTRODUCTION
Atea Future Growth is a department of the Danish IT
infrastructure company ATEA. Their areas of expertise are
divided into four groups - Retail, Education, Smart Cities and
Healthcare. Within all of these areas, their central focus is
on the user - the person who is affected by all the intelligent
technologies developed to improve his/her life.
Natasha Friis Saxberg from ATEA presented a challenge
regarding patients suffering from chronical diseases. Based
on the companys former encounters, the focus was set upon
improving the quality of patients living with chronic diseases, and
furthermore decreasing the costs of treatments while enforcing
the connection between patients and clinical personnel. ATEA is
additionally looking for a way to get the relatives of the patients
more involved, as well as to deal with the problem of loneliness
and withdrawal. They would also like to contribute to a potential
prevention of the chronical diseases.
In order to obtain a clearer overview on the matter of
chronic diseases, we did some research and found out that
approximately 1,7 million of Denmarks population suffer from a
chronic disease1.
All chronic diseases are generally specified as a long term
condition which cannot be prevented by vaccines or medication,
1 http://www.danskepatienter.dk/tema/forebyggelse-og-motion
and involves regular data collection, accurate observations and is
very time and money consuming for all parties involved (Patients,
Health Care system, Relatives). Yet every disease has a particular
specification for which patients often will have to adjust their
lifestyles and daily habits.
These aspects raised the question about whether or not there
was one specific disease and keeping this in mind we gather
several reasons why should we look more into MS - Multiple
Sclerosis, which is a nerve disease that affects young and
middle-aged, and over time often results in loss of nerve system
functions with disabilities and severe social and personal loss.
The number of patients suffering from MS is growing rapidly -
approximately 400 every year in Denmark and the total number
of registered patients goes up to 13,0002. This disease can
develop to the point that it becomes a disability and in this
sense we can significantly improve the patients life quality.
Another factor that we had in mind when choosing to work with
MS was the short life expectancy, which shortens down to an
average of 10 years from the moment of contacting the disease.
We feel that this diseases has been overlooked by society and
there is room for improvement on public awareness and the
process of how this disease is managed.
2 https://www.sundhed.dk/content/cms/93/4693_sclerosebehandlings-
registret_kommenteret%C3%A5rsrapport2015_version6_offentlig.pdf - page
48 - published in February 2016
4
CLIENT GOAL
ATEA Future Growth wants to improve the life of patients with
chronical diseases, by implementing intelligent technology.

PROBLEM FORMULATION
How can we improve the life quality of the
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients using digital
solutions in terms of saving time and money?

What defines an MS patient?

What are the daily struggles?
What tools or services can we use to help the
patients?
How could the implementation of these solutions
be financially and timewise effective?

5
CONSTRAINTS
For this specific project there are no practical constraints as
the client gave us free hands on developing a good intelligent
solution.
DELIMITATION
After research we decided to go with Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
because we found out that the number of patients is increasing
yearly and the society overlooks this matter.
HYPOTHESIS
We suspect that an influential factor in the triggering of Multiple
Sclerosis is stress and an untidy lifestyle. We would like to
gain insight in the connection between these factors and the
triggering, and explore how we through a digital concept can
help prevent the disease from getting worse.
Furthermore we would like to investigate whether or not the
public is well-educated and has useful knowledge regarding
Multiple Sclerosis, and how that knowledge can be used both
for patients with the disease, but also preventively for newly
diagnosed patients.
6
ANALYSIS
As part of our analysis section we used several research
methods in order to get the best insight on MS patients. For this
particular assignment we decided to use the following methods,
desktop research, field visit, and interviews to gain insight into
MS. Through the desktop research we gathered insights and
information, like the number of actual sufferers and the course
of the disease.1 Through the desktop research we encountered
several informants with expertise within MS, and one of them
agreed to do an interview and a field visit. Additinally, we had
the opportunity to interview a physiotherapist with expertise
within the area, 2 interviews which have been a big help in the
writing of this report.
We were given the opportunity of doing a field visit to a patients
house and observing her over the timespan of 5 hours. It was a
Natural Observation, and in the patients natural environment.
The patients condition is not influencing functioning of her
muscles so she has no difficulties in moving around as well as
using technology such as smartphone, computer or iPad. What
we could observe was that she was struggling with multitasking.
She would always finish one thing first and then started to do
another thing. Very often had to take a short break from her
daily tasks, such as sitting down for a couple minutes as she was
getting tired and exhausted. Also she showed us her schedule,
which was written by hand as a brief calendar. She told us in the
interview later on (see Appendix 1), that this would help her to
discover what her condition is allowing her to do, in terms of not
triggering any spasms or affecting her overall welfare. At the end
of this session the patient agreed on answering a few question
1 http://www.healthline.com/health/multiple-sclerosis/ms-vs-als#Prog-
nosis7
in order to check up upon our findings and also add data to our
information pool, which is later on used to develop a solution
that will actually help MS patients.
To really get under the skin of an MS patient, we used the
method of interviewing. By using this method we gained
indispensable information, not only about their lives but also
their needs and the psychology behind the disease. Here we
discovered, according to Natashja, that depression is very much
linked to MS, as a huge part of the patients also suffer from
depression, and the fact that one of the biggest struggles when
suffering from MS, is the process of everyday planning. (See
Appendix 1)
To get another perspective of MS and what the patients
are dealing with, we were lucky to get an interview from an
experienced physiotherapists within rehabilitation of MS patients.
He quickly confirmed our theory and the information giving to
us by Natashja, regarding the problems of remembering and
planning ahead. He states that one of the most common issues
is that the patients are hit cognitive, and that he often has to
remind the patients of the exercises they did the last time.
Furthermore he independently described the issues within the
patients fatigue, and that training of cardio is important for them
just to get through a day without being tired and exhausted all
the time. (see Appendix 2).
7
After gathering data through the initial research methods, more
doubt and questions occurred. Through the interview and
observation of the MS patient, Natashja, one thing that really
struck, was, as mentioned above, the fact that over 50 % of
patients suffering fra MS also suffered from depression. Studies
show that 21 % of patients suffering from diabetes was also
in some way or another was suffering from emotional distress,
and 15 % was suffering from an actual depression2. Could it
really be true that MS patients was just simply more affected by
depression, than any other disease? By processing the collected
data from Natashja, we performed a second desktop research
through various reports, press articles and previous studies. It
was soon very clear that depression indeed is connected with
MS. An articles states the following;
There is a higher occurrence of depression in people suffering
with MS, where psychological factors like existential crisis
and frustration over the diagnosis and symptoms has big
significance.3
Another article continues;
There is also research that suggests that if MS hits in certain
parts of the brain, there is a greater risk of developing
depression.4
2 http://www.b.dk/nationalt/kronisk-syge-gaar-ned-med-stress-og-de-
pression
3 https://scleroseforeningen.dk/netraadgivningen/depression-ved-ms
4 https://scleroseforeningen.dk/netraadgivningen/sclerose-og-depres-
sion
Another thing that was worth looking into, was the patients
constant fear of being struck by muscles contractions and
spasms. Even though she only had experienced 2 spasm attacks
within her 8 years of suffering from MS, it was still a constant
anxiety of another attack. We discovered that spasms can
actually be predicted and somewhat managed, by it demands a
constant measuring of vitals, such as blood pressure, pulse and
muscle contraction etc.
Through the second desktop research we were able to verify
the information given by Natashja, that depression is very
much connected to MS - a fact that was surprising for all of us.
Furthermore we discovered that MS patients is actually twice
more likely to commit suicide than the rest of the population,
especially within the first 5 years after the diagnosis. A tendency
that, according to experts, is not likely to improve anytime soon.5
Furthermore, we looked into the social awareness in regards
of MS as a disease, and we discovered that since the condition
has very individual reactions in every particular case (symptoms
can vary from person to person), misconceptions exist among
the newly diagnosed patients. There is a closed community that
helps diagnosed MS patients6, but currently there is no active
campaigns.
5 http://www.si-folkesundhed.dk/Ugens%20tal%20for%20folkesund-
hed/Ugens%20tal/Uge_45_2005.aspx
6 http://www.worldmsday.org/news/mayms-month-in-denmark/
8
CONCLUSION
The outcome of our analysis led us to understand the real
struggle MS patients are going through. Results are showing that
MS patients might be able to manage the disease better if they
would have some support on planning their days. Our research
has also shown that stress is a very bad influencer of MS, as well
as patients of MS are likely to commit suicide within the first five
years of their diagnosis.
Tackling the problem, we agreed that a digital solution could
improve the overall struggle in terms of task management, but
doing this we need to focus on the patients who are not severely
disabled and still able to complete actions on their own without
any help from a social support. As an example we shortly spoke
to Jens, an MS patient who was paralyzed from the neck and
down, and is in constantly need of aid. It would be somewhat
impossible to develop a solution for a patient with such severe
symptoms.
Additionally the nonstop fear of spasm attacks MS patients
experience, is possible to predict and work upon. A digital
solution constantly monitoring the patients, can be helpful in
making the patients feel more safe and protected from more
uneasiness.
ADDITIONAL FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES
Implementing solution on other chronic diseases
Firstly, as the goal of our client was to help patients with chronic
diseases, we were focusing on patients with the diagnosis of
multiple sclerosis. In the future our plan is to adapt the solution
so it could be used by patients with different diagnoses of
chronic diseases, sharing common characteristics. For instance,
patients suffering of Alzheimer are also in need of monitoring
and planning, and could be helped by a digital solution.
Campaign to raise awareness among Multiple Sclerosis
Secondly, our research has led us to the information that society
is not well educated about the disease. As Natashja mentioned
in the interview, when the symptoms appeared the first time, it
was very stressful for a longer period of time, until she gathered
enough information, as she did not know what to expect and
kept imagining the worst outcome.
Considering this information, raising awareness among
people could lead to reducement of stress and contribute to
improvement of the treatment during the first stages.
9
REFERENCE LIST
http://www.danskepatienter.dk/tema/forebyggelse-og-motion
https://www.sundhed.dk/content/cms/93/4693_sclerosebehandlingsregistret_
kommenteret%C3%A5rsrapport2015_version6_offentlig.pdf - page 48 - published in February 2016
http://www.healthline.com/health/multiple-sclerosis/ms-vs-als#Prognosis7
http://www.b.dk/nationalt/kronisk-syge-gaar-ned-med-stress-og-depression
http://anikto.com/wordpress/2012/06/04/the-future-of-remote-patient-monitoring/
https://scleroseforeningen.dk/netraadgivningen/depression-ved-ms
https://scleroseforeningen.dk/netraadgivningen/sclerose-og-depression
http://www.si-folkesundhed.dk/Ugens%20tal%20for%20folkesundhed/Ugens%20tal/Uge_45_2005.aspx
http://www.worldmsday.org/news/mayms-month-in-denmark/

10
APPENDIX

11
Appendix 1 - Interview transcript
Name - Natashja
Age - 43
Occupation - Communication consultant (part-
time)
Q: How did it start, when did you find out ?
A: I just woke up one morning, I was trying to
speak and my voice sounded very strange - like I
had a potato in my mouth. Half of my face felt
numb and the power in my muscles on the left side
of the face felt drained out. Then I went to the
hospital, doctors first thought its some brain
damage - clot. I was examined, but nothing was
negative on that part. Then after couple of days
later they found out, that I have MS. This was 8
years ago.
Q: Can some of your actions trigger the effects of
the MS? If so, can you foresee it?
A: Yeah, stress is not good, thats also I work
only part-time, because I get tired very fast as
well.
Q: Does it affect your physical performance?
A: Sometimes it does, sometimes I have this
feeling of numbness in my legs or arms, but
its small, minor stuff. It varies, it can affect
different parts of the body. At some point I
couldnt see with my left eye.
Q: Are there any things in particular you have
trouble with after the disease?
A: Yes, in general I am more tired, its harder
to focus in longer time - thats why I have
smaller projects at work. But because my brain
was affected, I was taking these cognitive tests
and you could see that I was getting more and
more tired. But the last year it was slowing down
as I am on a new medication, which is really good
and it helps.
Q: About the medication - in what form are you
taking it? Is it pills only or?
A: The one I am taking now are pills, every
morning and evening. Before I was taking
injections every second day.
Q: Was somebody helping you with the injections?
A: You have to go to the hospital and learn
it, then do it yourself at home. It was quite
difficult in the beginning, as I had to do it
myself, it was a huge transformation.
Q: How many doctors are you visiting, do you have
a specific doctor assigned to yourself?
A: I am going to the same place every third
month, to get my medication, which is prescribed
by a nurse, then I am having a doctor visits
every half a year.
12
Q: Is there any option for you to order this
medication online? Or even have it delivered to
your house?
A: Not really, I have to pick the medication
myself, its around a half an hour drive. But it
would definitely be helpful and easier if it could
be delivered to my home.
Q: There is a big difference how this disease is
affecting people, could you us give some examples
how it differs?
A: My really good friend Jens is paralysed from
his neck to the bottom. He is lucky that his
brain is not affected, he is really sharp, he can
talk and everything, but his body is not really
functional. It could get even worse, when both
your brain and body is affected, basically you are
just sitting on the spot and thats it.
Q: Is there anything in common that all the
people with this disease are struggling with,
that could somehow improve your daily life ?
A: I think the hard part about MS is that it
affects people so differently. In the beginning I
had this digital program called Spirit. About
50% of people with MS have depressions,so this
program makes you feel more positive with small
exercises, I found it very helpful as I was
thinking about my future, what is going to happen
to me and things like that. This made me feel
better. There is also the fear of getting another
attack of spasms. I have only had 2 attacks, but
i am dreading the day i will get another one - i
think about i every day.
Q: Do you have any caretaker?
A: I dont, but Jens, my good friend, whos whole
body is paralysed has.
Q: Do you know how they communicate?
A: They come to his house. Every morning the
caretaker is coming to help him to take a bath,
dress-up. There is also another person driving
him around, helping him eat etc.
Q: Is this help provided by the Kommune?
A: Yes, it is.
Q: How do you think it affects Jens and his wife
relationship? Do you think this affects their
connection.or do you feel yourself it influences
your relationship with your relatives?
A: I think for Jens it definitely affects because
his whole sexual life is gone. So they have
to find other ways to be intimate. I was just
divorced when I got MS so of course when I
started dating I was like when am I gonna tell
this. I think in my situation is more like
scheduling my life really well, divide the days -
not doing as much, trying to keep my energy.
Q: Do you need to manage your time very strictly?
A: Yes, day by day. Not by minute, but yes.
Q: Are you using any tool to schedule it?
13

A: On my behalf.. well, I think I am good at
structuring and planning, but I think something
like that would be a helpful tool for some
people. And maybe monitoring, like when you have
this weekly plan and you do stuff my body is
reacting, start feeling tired, or getting spasms
than you could mark that in your calendar..this
activity made me tiredmaybe over time (because
you know I did it with my hands) i could see if
im going out friday, saturday and have to do
something sunday thats too much..so then i have
to decide do I go out friday or saturday
stuff like that..at the beginning I was working
full time and then I had to stop because I got
so tired at work..i had to start monitoring what
time of a day I get tired and if it helps if a
take a break and all that stuff and i did it all
by hand just by writing down
Q: Do you know if there is some tool already for
MS patients?
A: I dont think there is specific MS tool
Q: How much people affected with MS are in touch
together? Is there some forums where you can get
in touch with some people and share problems.
A: Yes, there is a lot on facebook there is
different groups and you could also meet up in
person. Meet in local forums once in a month. In
the beginning I tried to go to one and people
were..I thought it was really hard and then all
the people were really sick. So it was really
scary, so I was like okay I am not going there
and then a year later..Okay Ill try again.
Because it is so different how sick you are - how
much you are affected. Tomorrow I maybe get attack
which will affect my body working worse so it is..
well some people decide not to attend this groups
because it is too much..
Q: Do patients also have pain?
A: Some of them do, but I dont. I am lucky but
some people do, some people feel like their feet
are burning, feel like some parts of body are on
fire,or total opposite its cold and stiff and
Jens is struggling a lot with spasms..He gets
other medication to control that and also when
you are this handicapped your muscles get affected
too..its not MS but it is side effect of sitting
still and only stretched half an hour a day.
Q: How is your perceptions of societys view on
MS? Are they educated and should they know more
about it?
A: Yea I think because its is only 14 500 ,
its not like cancer - everyone knows cancer,
when I got MS myself I was like what is MS. You
have heard the term but I was imagining this
14
wheel cheer..So I think it is important that
society gets educated, there is people like me
walking and dancing and there is people really
physically affected so is like you cant see that
i am actually blind on one eye and that my brain
is affected..and it would be good if people knew
a little bit more. I think it is getting better
though, the awareness..it also with this TV show
Danish - one character has MS, so i think it is
getting better.

Q: What do you think?

A: Planning and psychological stuff.should be

implemented. One of the problems I see is that
people who are helping people with MS..they dont
always actually know a lot about MS..so awareness
between social workers would be important as
well. It is really related to..how many..mm when
I got the disease ..and my dad is a doctor it
was helpful because you cannot push what kind of
medication is thereand my mom is a social worker
so she could help with the process..also helped
...but if you dont have good caretakers it can
get really tough.

15
Appendix 2 - Interview transcript
Name - Theis Buhl
Age - 24
Occupation - Physiotherapist
Q: Can you briefly tell me in which extent you
have been working with patients of MS?
A: I have had a patients suffering of Multi-
ple Sclerosis and also a few suffering of Amy-
otrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), both indi-
vidually and team training, which consist of
primarily strength and cardio training.
Q: How is the training? And what are the most
important things to train for?
A: Training for MS patients is very individ-
ual. It often depends on where an attack has
hit and how violently it has been. General-
ly, strength training and cardio training is
really good for the patient. It can be both
heavy strength training with weights and ma-
chines, or for example circuit training with
lighter weights or body weight. In some cas-
es, the training of mobility may also be nec-
essary.
One can say that many MS patients are in a
fortunate position because a large part of
them can get free physiotherapy. So the state
pays for them.
Q: If you were to highlight the biggest chal-
lenges for the patients, what would be?
A: Its important to remember that MS hits
very individually, and no two people will be
affected equally.
Often I think, however, that balance problems
recur. Many are also hit in the legs, and
lose some strength during an attack. Fatigue
is also often an issue, which usually derives
from the loss of strength after an attack.
Demyelination of the nerves is making them
less mobile, and that has so big an impact of
their functioning.
I have also had a few, who have been hit on
the memory. Those I met could remember things
like the totality of something or agreements
and such, but the details of what they had
talked about could sometimes be lost. For
example, they could not always remember what
exercises we had done last, but when we got
started they remembered it again.
16