Postural (Orthostatic) Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTS) is a chronic condition affecting between 0.2% and 1.5% of people in developed countries, predominantly women aged 15 to 50, who often have trouble seeking a diagnosis. Tracking technologies and wearables
might enable people with PoTS to record and understand symptoms and facilitate interactions with healthcare professionals. An international survey (N=752 participants) was conducted to understand how and why people in this community currently use (or don’t use) wearables to monitor their condition. Follow up interviews (N=20 participants) were conducted to explore lived experiences and how to design future wearables that support the needs of this overlooked population. Finally, a series of four asynchronous
co-design workshops (N=15 participants), co-designed via survey, were conducted to generate guidelines for the design and development of future wearables to monitor PoTS. Results show that wearables can help validate physical symptoms, especially heart rate patterns, and form a useful part of a condition management system. However, there are still issues which need to be explored further, including device accuracy and trust, meaningful annotation of the data and linking this to daily lived experience.
| Date of Award | 22 May 2025 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Awarding Institution | - University Of Strathclyde
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| Sponsors | EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) |
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| Supervisor | Marilyn Lennon (Supervisor) & Martin Halvey (Supervisor) |
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