Octo: An Educational Toy for Supporting Families Navigating Congenital Heart Disease (CHD)
Team: Neda Barbazi, Carlye Lauff, Ji Youn Shin
Program: Product Design
This research project harnesses the power of play to empower families navigating Congenital Heart Disease (CHD), impacting about 40,000 U.S. births annually. The primary objective is to transform Octo, a physical and digital toy prototype, into a play-driven educational caregiver. This transformation aims to elevate a child’s health literacy by deepening their understanding of CHD, alleviate parental burden through accessible educational support, and enhance healthcare provider efficiency by minimizing the need for extensive education during visits, fostering seamless care coordination among all CHD stakeholders.
Octo addresses critical gaps in pediatric care, including accessible knowledge, managing multi-stakeholders, overcoming usability testing challenges for child-focused interventions, and systematically integrating play into pediatric care. Developed in collaboration with the Department of Pediatrics, Octo’s physical design has undergone iterative refinements from 2022 through 2024. The proposed research employs mixed methods, participatory design, and field deployment supported by pre/post assessments to evaluate Octo’s impact on the multiple CHD stakeholders.
This multifaceted approach aims to 1) gather stakeholder feedback on Octo’s design, 2) incorporate children’s perspectives into Octo’s design, and 3) conduct a field deployment to optimize Octo’s effectiveness, assessing its impact on children’s increased health literacy.
Keywords: Congenital Heart Disease, CHD, Play, Toy, Health Literacy, Health Education
Advisors:
Carlye Lauff, PhD - Assistant Professor, Product Design
Ji Youn Shin, PhD - Assistant Professor, Product Design
Mentors:
Gurumurthy Hiremath, MD - Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Associate Division Director, Pediatric Cardiology
Amr El-Bokl, MD - Electrophysiology Fellow, Boston Children's Hospital
Funders: Kusske Design Initiative (KDI), Lasting Imprint Foundation
