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ESSENTIAL DESIGN PRINCIPLES THE SERVICE

In this age of fast consumerism, users are bombarded with choices
and rampant marketing for services and products. However, when it
comes to healthcare services, the primary research conducted
observed that choices are most strongly influenced by prior experi-
ences in healthcare, or the sense of safety and trust provided by the
healthcare practitioner itself. As seen through the research , the
very nature of ISM and integrative medicine’s philosophy and
practice makes it most suitable to build trust through personal
interaction. Hence, the aspect of peer-to-peer interaction as a
means of building trust forms a key factor in the design of the
proposed service. This means that it is ensured a sense of human
connection is involved at all stages of the service experience for the
user.

The frameworks of certification and standardisation of healthcare,
until very recently, have favoured allopathy in the formal systems of
healthcare, and the remnants of this monopoly are still evident. The
lack of formalised systems for ISMs has also, over the decades,
created a whole new market for informal, unqualified practitioners
who have exploited the opportunity to their personal benefit,
furthering the sense of distrust in these methods. Moreover, the Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy are considered to be especially
methods of documentation of the outcomes and practices in ISM effective in treating chronic illnesses, where timelines of healing are
are currently highly fragmented and inconsistent, partly due to the often long. The fact that ISM takes a long time to be effective,
huge diversity of regional, linguistic and cultural differences of their clubbed with the need for the patient to follow up regularly for
interpretations. This makes it difficult to integrate the different periodic treatment and medication often become reasons for its
forms in their usage or to recognise the value in their differences. users to lose faith in its effectiveness and not follow through with
Documentation is essential in supporting research and spreading treatment and medication. Obscurity about the different stages of
awareness about the effectiveness of ISM in treating chronic illness- healing and effectiveness of ISM on chronic illnesses furthers the
es. This can be implemented by maintaining a repository of patient sense of uncertainty in the healing process There is a lack of
experiences and making it accessible through inclusive channels to emphasis laid on the long term benefits of ‘slow’ and ‘conscious’
patients, educational institutes and the general public. These healthcare through ISM, and hence, the proposed service will serve
documents can also be streamlined into graphic formats of data to accentuate these aspects of ISM by removing the sense of
visualization, making them more accessible, inclusive and easy to uncertainty in timelines of healing through creating a repository of
understand. previous patient’s experiences with ISM.