Baseline Museum

PATIENT EDUCATION & ENGAGEMENT | INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH | BEHAVIOUR CHANGE

Baseline Museum was developed in a multidisciplinary design sprint and explores how we might change patient behaviour to improve health outcomes in inpatient wards.

OPPORTUNITY

Increase the amount of physical activity performed by elderly inpatient’s on medical wards who have no medical necessity to remain bedridden, with the aim to improve outcomes and reduce risks.

OUTCOME

An exclusive exhibition for patients that transforms inpatient wards into interactive museum experiences. These exhibitions use entertainment and learning to encourage mobility and progress tracking.

THE INTERVENTION

Hospitalisation is more likely to result in sarcopenia (loss of skeletal muscle mass) due to reduced caloric intake, low physical activity, prolonged bed rest, depressed mood, and social isolation. Three out of five inactive elderly have no reason for bed rest, 10 years worth of muscle mass can be lost in a 10 day stay, and sarcopenia is associated with risk of falls, fractures, morbidity and mortality. Reduced physical activity is the main cause of hospital associated deconditioning and muscle atrophy. 6.3% loss of leg mass after 10 days of bed rest in otherwise healthy older people.

The Baseline Museum is an intervention concept which would transform each hallway of a hospital ward into an interactive museum with topics ranging across health, nature, art, popular culture, and more. At the start of their hospital stay, patients would be provided motion-sensor audioguides which they could use to explore exclusive museum content within the ward. The individual distance to each museum exhibition point can be used as a personal fitness goal and can be used to set goals with their physicians. It also gives an opportunity for socialising and community building within wards.

Prototyping

To build this experience, I worked with two colleagues in healthcare, Aideen Larmer (PT) and Aakash Rai (GP), to build a motion activated exhibit prototype which would trigger audio recordings in the patients handheld guide.

BEHAVIOUR CHANGE

Our team utilised both the COM-B model of behaviour change as well as MINDSPACE to shape our intervention. We mapped out the barriers and enablers to being physically active in hospital and interviewed nurses about some of the specific barriers of doing activities of daily living that normally provide lifestyle physical activity such as meal times.

We found ‘patient identity’ and hospital culture and norms were major mobility barriers to people who have not come in with a mobility-limiting illness.

Baseline Museum: Behaviour Change for Improved Inpatient Health Outcomes.