Design for Discordant Chronic Comorbidities (DCCs): A DC $$^3$$ Model

Patients with complex conditions and treatment plans often find it challenging to communicate with multiple providers and to prioritize various management tasks. The challenge is even greater for patients with discordant chronic comorbidities (DCCs), a situation where a patient has conditions that have unrelated and/or conflicting treatment plans. We present results that highlight these challenges from two studies. The first is a photo-elicitation study with patients with DCCs (n = 16), and the second is an interview study of health providers (n = 8). In an attempt to address these challenges, we introduce a model that captures the different stages of synthesizing information about symptoms and suggested medical treatments, decision making around possible treatment plans including prioritizing different portions of the plan, and implementing their plan. This model is iterative, such that changes in a plan can impact symptoms and necessitate revisiting the plan. We call this model the Discordant Chronic Condition Care (DC $$^3$$ ) model.