GutHealth
Recently advancing technology allowing us to read the complex gut microbiome has led to an explosion in gut microbiome research. We imagine the timeline of GutHealth to exist 50 years from now, due to the rapidly growing research on the subject. We propose an at-home test kit to measure an individual’s gut microbiome and track bacterial deficiencies, and a linked app that will provide a nutritional plan to restore gut health and a balance of good bacteria.
The gut microbiome is defined as the microorganisms that live in the digestive tract of humans. An imbalance of this bacteria has been linked to numerous diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, hepatocellular carcinoma, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease, among many others. The composition of the gut microbiome is directly related to diet and environmental factors, and can therefore be directly influenced by the individual. With today’s technology, it is possible to measure someone’s gut microbiome content in a laboratory setting, but very few easy to use at-home products exist. Even then, the research on what constitutes a healthy gut microbiome is still in its early stages. 50 years from now, we anticipate a much greater body of knowledge to be available on this.
Our solution employs personalized medicine, a medical model that is currently on the rise. Personalized medicine looks at the individual holistically and creates interventions, recommends products, and makes medical decisions tailored for that individual based on their predicted response and specific ailments. Personalized medicine bridges medicine, psychology, and engineering to provide contextualized advice to the individual to improve their health.
Some challenges in current wearable technology or personalized medical devices that support human health do exist: this includes the lack of understanding the data on the patient’s part, as well as a lack of individualized feedback and recommendations for the user to improve their health (Hansel et al.). We propose a solution that mediates these challenges, and not only provides an easy-to-understand measurement of individual gut health, but also tailors a nutritional plan for the patient to improve their overall health.
User Psychology/Persona
Meet Sara.
Our persona is Sara Pham. Sara has recently been dealing with an upset stomach and chronic fatigue, and she just finished a course of antibiotics, something that is known to disrupt the gut microbiota. At the advice of a friend, Sara begins looking into gut health. Sara desires to restore a healthy balance of bacteria in her gut and remedy her symptoms, so she can proceed with living a healthy life. This user aspires to learn more about her body and how it works, while learning what habits of hers may be contributing to her feelings of lethargy and stomach pain.
Sara is a lawyer, and lives a very fast-paced life in Boston that leaves little time for making healthy meals, exercising, and ensuring proper sleep. All of these factors play a role in gut health, so this could be why Sara has been having gastrointestinal symptoms. Sara not only needs to better understand what is happening inside her body, but she also needs help learning how to take care of her body, especially regarding the food she eats. A comprehensive meal plan designed for her would be easy to use and require little work on her part, while ensuring all of the suggested meals are personally tailored to her gut needs. For example, if it looks like certain beneficial bacteria are lacking, Sara should eat some foods high in what is called “polyphenols,” which are plant compounds linked to health benefits. This would include foods like berries or dark chocolate.
Sara might fear or doubt the credibility of the advice she is receiving, which is why it would be important to stress the advice would come from a team of healthcare professionals, who would be consulted during the making of this product. She might also fear the cost of such a service, as well as hold some hesitations surrounding user privacy and security of data.
Overall, an evaluation of our user psychology indicates that our users are looking for an easy way to better understand what is going on inside their body that they can’t immediately see, as well as a program that will make understanding their individual nutritional needs a lot less work. There is also an element of curiosity about one’s body here that would likely be useful for marketing, as other personalized medicine companies (like 23&Me) have capitalized on. Privacy issues and user trust are two elements that would have to be anticipated in the design and marketing process, to ensure user comfort.
Our Solution
GutHealth would include two elements to the service: an at-home test kit that would be shipped back to a laboratory, as well as an app that can update the user of test results and provide a customized meal plan based on nutrient deficiencies.
In the present day, the most common way to measure microbiome composition is through fecal samples, however in 50 years we anticipate far superior methods that users would prefer. We anticipate a method of measuring microbiome composition through saliva, and so the test kit would involve a swab to swab the inside of the mouth and collect saliva in a jar. The instructions would be simple and avoid the use of medical jargon, so as to keep the process pain-free for the user.
Once the user collects a swab, the test kit will be shipped back to a central laboratory for processing. Each user will receive an ID associated with their test kit, and so when they login into the app, they will automatically receive the data from the lab to their phone. Within this app, they will be able to visualize the composition of their gut microbiome in an easily digestible fashion, as well as look at a meal plan and recommended foods that will alleviate any gut health problems.
This product would ensure an easy method for users to track their health and receive contextualized recommendations based on what they specifically need, and how their body will respond to certain foods.
Task Analysis
We performed a high level task analysis and task classification to better understand how our users will interact with the product.
As for the machine learning aspect of this, it is also possible to incorporate a feature in which the program is able to learn what kinds of foods the user likes the most. For instance, the app could present options on the screen and the user could swipe left or right depending on if they like that particular food, and over time the software could learn which foods the user likes and which ones will be most successfully incorporated into the user’s diet based on their preferences, and present them accordingly.
Regarding interactions, the user will interact with this program primarily through the app. There will be some basic inputs for the user to interact with the system, such as age, height, and weight. In addition to this, the app will send out alerts as a reminder to the user to check their suggested meals, as well as small motivational messages reminding the user to live a healthy life. A “Wellness Tip of the Day” is one way the app could continue this interaction. The user will also interact with the program to tell the app what suggested foods they like, thus allowing the machine to learn the user’s preferences.
User Walkthrough
Sara, wanting to learn more about her gut health, will navigate to the program’s website. There, she will be able to easily place an order for a test-kit, which will be speedily delivered to her home.
Once the test-kit arrives, it will come with instructions that are easy to understand for a regular individual outside of medicine. Sara will swab her mouth as instructed and return the saliva sample to the lab, in the return packaging that is provided. She will also download the app, as instructed in the test-kit directions.
Using the app, Sara will input her height, weight, and age. She will then be notified when it is updated with her lab results, via a phone notification. From there, Sara will be able to access and view her lab results in the form of visuals and written explanations so she can better understand them. This will also open up the meals section of the app, which will now be populated with foods recommended for her personal wellness. Sara will be able to tell the app whether she likes or dislikes certain suggestions, so the program can learn her preferences.
How will we get there?
Some of the technology within this project exists already, such as the ability to measure a microbiome, but some of it will have to be developed over the next 50 years, such as saliva tests to measure microbiome content. Research surrounding the microbiome has been exploding in recent years, so a huge part of developing this product would come from the academic research that is teaching us what constitutes a healthy microbiome. This also would give a better idea of what problems a disrupted microbiome can cause in the body, as well as what external factors can cause this disruption. Numerous attributes like genetics and social environment have still not been explored within this research, although these could be contributing factors to an individual’s gut health.
Some ethical issues surrounding the emerging interest in the microbiome do exist, such as privacy. Some researchers have brought up the concern that research samples being shared is a violation of the privacy of the study’s subjects, since it is still unclear whether microbiome samples constitute protected health information. There are concerns over how much control external sources (such as the government) can exert on people’s microbiome, say if it is extremely unique, and who really “owns” it. Similar issues arise when considering the public health aspect: the microbiome is a factor in some infectious diseases, and effective public health strategies rely on collecting mass amounts of data, but privacy concerns may prevent this.
In the future, we imagine that the knowledge base on the microbiome will expand greatly, thus allowing us to revise this service accordingly. This will allow for better measurements of an individual’s microbiome composition, as well as better recommendations for the user with a more expansive knowledge of what constitutes a healthy microbiome. We will be better able to specialize the results and recommendations to an individual’s gender, genetic history, ethnicity, dietary restrictions, and predisposition to certain diseases, among other attributes. This would create a revolutionary product that can present results in a manner that is easy to understand for the user, as well as recommend solutions to the results so the user is not left unsure of how to improve their health.