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Enhans, was initially conceptualised by a team of 8 students as a part of our collective thesis project at Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology. Following that, it was expanded and executed by Antara Madavane, Manasi Vaidya, Ranjani Tavargeri, Ridhima Bhutani and Vedika Kasat between November 2019 and June 2020.
COLLABORATOR
Dr. Hima Pendharkar
Additional Professor, Department of Neuroimaging and Interventional Radiology (NIIR), NIMHANS
THE CONTEXT
Every day, doctors at the NIIR department at NIMHANS struggle to ensure that each patient receives and understands the information they need to make a decision about their treatment.
NIMHANS caters to over 5,00,000 patients from across the country every year. Roughly 75% of these patients receive treatment at no cost or highly subsidised costs.*
* as reported in - http://nimhans.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/NIMHANS-Annual-Report-2017-18.pdf
OUR UPAAI
To tackle these challenges, we developed a communication strategy called Enhans.
Enhans consists of three multilingual tools that help doctors relay complex medical information in seven languages.
Animated Explainer Videos
These are 10-12 minute long videos that give patients an introduction to the anatomy of the brain and the body before proceeding to explain what the disease is, how it is diagnosed and what the available treatment options are.
Interactive Pamphlets
These provide the doctor with templates of the brain and the spine that they can draw and write on during consultation. The different sections can be used to show and explain the specific details of the patient’s case.
Audiovisual Consent Forms
These present regional translations of the current English consent form along with colloquial audio explanations so that patients can understand its medical and legal details in a language of their preference.
IMPACT
“This is the first time someone is doing this kind of project for a government set-up hospital. Once this project is completed, all similar institutions across India can just adapt to this method of counselling.”
- Resident Doctor, NIIR Department, NIMHANS
DEVELOPING ENHANS
Developing Enhans involved achieving a balance between making information easy to understand and including all the essential technical details
TALKING TO THE EXPERTS
In the first phase of the project, we observed consultations and procedures at NIMHANS. We interacted with doctors to gain first hand knowledge about the treatments done at the department and the challenges they face during consultation.
UNDERSTANDING OUR AUDIENCE
During this phase, we also conducted research activities with our patient demographic. This helped us gauge the audience’s level of medical knowledge and understand how they responded to information being presented in a visual format.
LEARNING FROM THE USERS
Throughout the process, we conducted usability testing at multiple stages to determine if our tools were communicating information effectively. This allowed for our content development to be directly informed by insights from testing.
To learn more about our methods, explore our research report.
How does Enhans make medical information more accessible for a multilingual and illiterate audience?
1. By answering frequently asked questions
The explainer videos answer basic questions so as to empower patients with enough fundamental knowledge needed for a detailed conversation with the doctor.
"How will the doctors diagnose my problem?"
"What is an angiogram?"
"What happens when an AVM ruptures?"
"What causes a CCF?"
"Are there any risks involved in the treatment?"
"How do I pay for my treatment?"
2. By contextualising information
The pamphlet serves as a compact visual summary of the information
provided by the doctor during consultation. It aims to help patients retain and recall the doctor’s explanations.
THE SAME DRAWINGS, ON OUR PAMPHLET
3. By explaining technical jargon
The audio explanations not only simplify essential medical terminology, but
also use metaphors from daily life to make information more relatable.
OUR VISION