TYPE
Medium
Thesis project
3D
For my thesis project and dissertation, I wanted to focus on people who have Opioid Use Disorder also known as OUD. I was really interested in this topic because it's a tricky subject that is not properly addressed even within the medical community and I wanted to know why. I found the two main causes to be stigma rooted in misunderstanding and insufficient access to OUD medication. With my project, I sought to mitigate stigma by rethinking the way medicine is accessed and delivered.
Research
First, I needed to look into what caused the opioid epidemic in the first place. In my thesis paper, I argue that the opioid epidemic was designed by Purdue Pharmaceuticals. The producer of the number one prescription pain killer in the U.S., OxyContin. I discuss the parallels between product design and what Purdue was doing. Which was creating a product with the goal of having lifelong users. My dissertation served as the groundwork for my research. I went through pages and pages of medical studies, court documents, interviews, and so much more. I also discussed some lesser-known facts about the Sackler family and the effects of the epidemic, such as their significant contributions to the art and design world as a way to re-write their family history. While writing about such a multi-layered, complex topic I made sure to distill the information in an easy-to-digest way that made it an enjoyable read.
Dissertation cover designed after old OxyContin ads
So, What Is An Opioid Use Disorder?
"Opioid use disorder is characterized by loss of control over the use of opioids resulting in physical, psychological, and social harms."
People with OUD are unfairly labeled as "drug addicts" or simply have a "pill problem" and are faced with stigma even within the medical community. Addiction is a re-occurring brain disease and not a lapse in judgment. The conversation surrounding OUD and the people with it should be handled with the same care and compassion as any other chronic disease.
128 people die
everyday from
an opioid OD
80%
of the world's supply of
opioids are consumed in
the U.S.
2 million
Americans are estimated to
have a substance use disorder
with prescription painkillers
Every 13 minutes
someone in the U.S. dies
from an opioid overdose
Existing Solutions
During my research, it was shocking and disheartening to see the hoops people needed to jump through to access life-saving medicine. Opioid medication is the most regulated medicine in the U.S. You can only get the medicine from treatment clinics that are few and far between, where you physically have to show up every day for your supervised dose. The other option is to go to a specially trained doctor who can prescribe it to you. But because OUD patients are seen as "undesirable patients" not many doctors are inclined to get the special training required to prescribe the medicine.
Line of people outside of the treatment facility waiting for their medicine / patient taking her daily supervised dose of medication
Development
I was really disappointed with the existing solutions on the market. That is when I knew this was an issue I really wanted to tackle. To help me better understand why access to medicine was so poor I reached out to Dr. Barbara Andraka-Christou, solo author of The Opioid Fix: America's Addiction Crisis and the Solution They Don't Want You to Have. Speaking with her was key to the development of my project because it made me understand one of the biggest issues in all of this is stigma towards people with OUD. That's not something that really came across in any of the research I've read up until this point, so it was really important for me to understand that moving forward. Amongst other things, it was just great speaking with someone who truly knew the ins and outs of everything having to do with OUD. Through Reddit, I also connected with people currently with OUD to hear more about their experiences.
From there I came up with the idea of creating a chronic disease aide. OUD is a chronic disease but it is not being treated as such. Therefore I wanted to create something along the lines of an asthma inhaler but for people with OUD. Nobody really thinks twice about seeing an asthma inhaler and getting one is a stigma-free process. By creating a chronic disease aide for something that most people don't consider a chronic condition, it forces people to re-examine how they look at OUD and people who have it. While fighting against negative stereotypes, I also wanted people who would use the device to simply have a reliable and easy way to access their medicine.
Examining the ways the medication can be administered
I looked at all the ways OUD medicine, which is buprenorphine, could be ingested. I decided to go for the intranasal route because it has never been done before but studies have shown it may be a promising way of delivering the drug. Like I said earlier, I looked at other chronic disease aides as well as other medical devices used at home to see what might work.
user research
My Solution
In trying to help find a possible solution I created Inabu. It stands for Intranasal Buprenorphine and is a nasal spray containing the medicine for OUD. Buprenorphine is not yet available for consumption intra-nasally, however, research has shown it may be a viable option for treatment. Using this information I wanted to create a beautifully designed chronic disease aide. Since OUD doesn't have any chronic disease aides yet I wanted to take this opportunity to create a new visual language. Which is why the device doesn't necessarily "look medical". Since people with OUD have been so overlooked I wanted to make something really beautiful that they wouldn't be embarrassed to have out. The look of the device is meant to alleviate some of the stigma by helping normalize having an Inabu at home or work and normalise the act of taking the medicine every day. With the goal being, spreading more awareness of OUD and treating it with less stigma and shame.
