THE RESULTS OF THE CO - CREATIVE PROCESS:
EVALUATION AND OUTCOME
FITWITS MD
Physicians reported that the Fitwits MD intervention facilitated conversation between physicians, patients and their families. They found the intervention engaging, and patients and their families were receptive to the material presented, which led to extended conversations and questions. Most felt the intervention allowed physicians, patients, and their families to identify and discuss behaviors relating to diet and nutrition (e.g. consuming fast food; amount of soda consumed in a day; number of weekly family meals) and activities (e.g. number of weekly visits to the gym; number of hours spent watching TV or playing on the computer each night). The study also indicated that Fitwits MD improved the physicians’ level of comfort and competence when discussing obesity prevention with children and parents (McGaffey et al. 2011).
Fitwits MD was the result of the co-creative process described above. It consists of a set of seventeen educational flashcards developed to help physicians start a conversation with their patients about obesity, family history, body mass index (BMI), and practical directives regarding portion control, nutrition and fitness discussions. The medical doctor starts the conversation with patients while the flashcards invite various engaging Fitwits characters to join in helping to clarify confusing health terms. These characters further define obesity and spark the dialogue about an obesity-related family history of type-2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Fitwits MD assists primary care family health physicians to increase health fluency and to affect wellness choices of children and their families. The tool allows all patients and their families the opportunity learn the content regardless of their diagnosis. Upon diagnosis continued interaction with the core health messages increases awareness of the problem. By design, the program is able to accommodate and teach the wide range of families.
Figure 1. Example of 3 of the 17 Fitwits MD educational flashcards.
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THE CO - DESIGN PROCESS IN PRACTICE The term co-design refers to a creative process through which collective creativity unfolds over the span of a design process (Sanders and Stappers 2008).