PhD studentship - Digital Medication Management for Older Adults with Multiple Chronic conditions

Mar 1, 2019

NetwellCASALA currently have two fully-funded PhD studentships available. Each successful candidate shall receive a postgraduate stipend of €16,000 per annum, plus fees and a contribution to their direct research project costs. The duration of each PhD studentship is 3 years.

Application Process: Please send a copy of your CV and a cover letter to aideen.gaynor@dkit.ie no later than 4 pm on Thursday 14th March 2019.

Please use “PhD application <insert: position ref number>” in the subject title. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to interview. Informal inquiries on each project should be sent to the Project Supervisors listed below. See the following link for more information https://www.dkit.ie/research-and-innovation/phd-studentships.html

Project Title: Digital Medication Management for Older Adults with Multiple Chronic Conditions

Position Reference Number: DkIT PhD 5

Supervisors: Dr. Julie Doyle (DkIT), Dr. John Dinsmore (Trinity College Dublin)

Eligibility Criteria:

  • 1st or 2.1 honours degree or equivalent in Human Computer Interaction, Design, Psychology or related discipline

  • Excellent oral and written communication skills are required, along with an ability to work both independently as well as part of a team. Informal Enquiries: Julie.doyle@dkit.ie

Project Summary: Multimorbidity, the presence of two or more chronic conditions, places a significant burden on health systems globally. People with multimorbidity (PwMs) face burdensome and complex treatment plans. Polypharmacy, the prescription of several drugs, is typical in this cohort, adding to the treatment burden and potentially resulting in dangerous drug interactions. Technology offers potential support in the self-management of medications for PwMs. However, existing digital medication management applications fall short of addressing the needs of PwMs in a number of ways: (1) They fail to recognize the complexity of factors involved for managing multiple chronic conditions; (2) existing applications do not take a multi-stakeholder approach to the problem, for example considering what is required for GPs and pharmacists to support PwMs with their medication management; (3) the needs and challenges for this age profile of users often are not considered in the design; (4) behaviour change theory is rarely considered in the design or evaluation.

This proposed PhD project will address the above gaps in the literature. Key outputs will involve an increased understanding of medication management for those with multimorbidity, a digital application to address the support older adults with medication self-management, findings from a field study involving PwMs and those stakeholder who play a key role in supporting their medication management. This proposed project builds significantly on work that took place as part of the Horizon 2020 ProACT project.