Research cooperation of Tallinn University and Tallinn Children’s Hospital

The main idea behind the project is the research related to the design of digital services and products for behaviour change. This topic is critically important for young patients who are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and must follow strict daily routine. The small patients have to measure blood sugar levels during the day and night, keep track of what they eat, and in what amount, and control their level of physical activities and sleep. It is obvious that following this kind of schedule is not easy even for an adult, so for kids suffering from type 1 diabetes it is even harder. 

The cooperation started three years ago when Tallinn Children's Hospital contacted Tallinn University with a request to develop an application which would help young patients in the organization with their daily tasks. “But when we started to explore this topic, we realized that before creating anything useful, we, first of all, have to understand which exact methods of behaviour change may work and which ones will probably not”,- mentioned Vladimir and added: “Then we came up with the idea to create a course named “Interaction design for behavioral change”, which has already been run 8 times during Tallinn Summer and Winter Schools, and now is a part of Human-Computer Interaction master programme”. 

Starting this autumn, School of Digital Technologies will also propose an English language Micro Degree, having the “Interaction design for behavioral change” course as a core, which will be aimed at professionals in the IT sector, Design and UX Research.

Among the visitors to Tallinn Children’s Hospital there were alumni who had defended their theses this year and one current student. Human-Computer Interaction master programme’s alumna Kelly Toom (thesis: „Enriching User Research for Digital Behaviour Change Interventions With COM-B Model„), Well-Being and Health Behaviour master programme’s alumna from the School of Natural Sciences and Health Tiina Kuusik (thesis: „The role of family support in treatment adherence in adolescents with type 1 diabetes”) and Human-Computer Interaction master programme’s current student Madis Kaaret, who is doing his research on co-design workshops with young patients. 

To have permission to work on those exact topics and do research, students had to get approval from The National Institute for Health Development of Estonia. From the Children Hospital side in the meeting participated doctor Ülle Enberg, a Head of Service in the Diabetology Department of Tallinn Children Hospital, Kristi Peegel, one of the founders of the NGO Estonian Children and Youth Diabetes Association, the association's manager and experience advisor, diabetes nurse Liina Heinvere, and a representative of parents of children with diabetes Ave Barabash.

During the meeting alumni informed the participants about the results of their research projects and together with representatives of the hospital discussed future plans.