Improving Communication and Social Support for Caregivers of High-Risk Infants through Mobile Technologies

Upon leaving the hospital, parents of high-risk infants experience a variety of challenges in providing care at home. In this work, we present results from a qualitative study to understand the role of social interaction and information-sharing surrounding high-risk infants among both home caregivers and health professionals. These results demonstrate challenges in communication and social support for caregivers of these infants. Collaborative technologies can serve to improve communication with professionals as well as provide much-needed social support. Based on the results of our study, we present design guidelines for collaborative communication technologies for this population and a prototype system design that demonstrates how these design guidelines might be met in a mobile application. The contributions of this work are twofold. First, we describe the difficulties in communicating and sharing information as well as the need for social support. Second, we introduce design guidelines for the implementation of collaborative technologies in support of this highly sensitive population and demonstrate how they might be met in a mobile application. Author