Easy to use pharmaceutical packaging (HELP)

Patients, mainly elderly men and women, often take several different medicines on a daily basis. It is a necessity both for consumers and health care workers to be able to open easily the pharmaceutical packages and to be able to read and understand the given instructions. The aim of the project is to develop tools to produce user-friendly pharmaceutical packages that are easy to open with easy to read instructions, which are the most critical factors for their usability and safety. University of Jyväskylä and Finnish Institute of Occupational Health are responsible for one subtask of the project: usability of different types of pharmaceutical packages. In this task, the subjects (n=45) are elderly persons, persons with rheumatoid arthritis, and health care workers. User needs concerning the design features of a product will be evaluated with a range of subjective and objective methods. A video-recorded think-aloud method will be used to define the typical problems with the pharmaceutical packages, the product points needing development, and the order of their importance. Electromyograpy (EMG), wrist angle measurements, and VAS-lines (Visual Analoque Scales) will be used to measure the muscle activity, wrist postures and usability during opening different types of pharmaceutical packages. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is responsible for the readability research in the project. The development of new products is made by Lahti University of Applied Sciences. The results of this study can be used in companies to develop and design usable and safe pharmaceutical packages based on the real needs of the users.

Funding

Tekes

Research group

Principal Investigators

Senior Research Scientist, PhD Raija-Liisa Heiniö  raija-liisa.heinio[at]vtt.fi, VTT Technical Reseach Centre of Finland

Prof. Sarianna Sipilä sarianna.sipila[at]jyu.fi, Department of Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä

Prof. Nina Nevala nina.nevala[at]jyu.fi, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and Department of Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä

Postdoctoral researchers

Special researcher PhD Erja Sormunen erja.sormunen[at]ttl.fi, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health

Collaborators

Research Scientist, M.Sc. (Tech.) Elina Rusko elina.rusko[at]vtt.fi, VTT Technical Reseach Centre of Finland

B.Design/M.Sc.(Tech) Noora Nylander  noora.nylander[at]lamk.fi