The In-Home Use of Medications: In Pursuit of Design-Driven Knowledge

The importance that medications can have in people’s daily lives at home is self-evident, particularly in the case of chronic therapy. And yet, although medications are often part of daily routines, there is still a relative inertia from a design perspective of innovating medications as “objects” inhabiting the domestic landscape. Healthcare and medication innovations are driven by clinical requirements that deal with health issues, albeit often lacking extensive person-centered consideration. This paper aims to address some concerns about the use of medications at home, in order to convert them into design concerns. To this end, this study takes the form of a literature review that could be of interest to designers committed to forthcoming advancements in the field. Meant as a theoretical paper, it partly revisits and integrates consolidated studies conducted in the anthropology of pharmaceuticals, along with inputs derived from patient-related healthcare literature.