Design of Therapeutic Information Systems as Indicating Through Signs

Abstract : Therapeutic information systems are tools to support healthcare professionals to treat their patients, aiding on their rehabilitation, helping them to understand their condition and the treatment procedures, or even motivating themselves to persist on ongoing treatments. Although the importance of digital therapeutic systems, the design of this type of system is still a challenge. Inspired by the Organizational Semiotics, Baranauskas and Bonacin proposed a framework to conduct work in interactive systems design. In the proposed approach, these authors argue in favor of designing as a social process which focuses on problem setting as well as on problem solving. This paper brings reflections of an instantiation of this framework in the context of therapeutic systems and presents the results of an application in a real scenario with patients affected in their mental health.