---
title: "Multiple Futures"
description: "Multiple Futures (Merck, 2017/18): A wearable, patient app and data service let people with MS feed research"
url: "https://www.sugar-network.org/en/projects/multiple-futures-2017-18/"
lang: "en"
---

# Multiple Futures

**A wearable, patient app and data service let people with MS feed research**

_Empowering people living with MS & creating the future of MS research_

- **Corporate partner:** [Merck](https://www.sugar-network.org/en/network/partners/merck/) (https://www.merck.com/)
- **Cohort:** [2017/18](https://www.sugar-network.org/en/projects/cohort/2017-18/)
- **Theme:** [Health & care](https://www.sugar-network.org/en/projects/themes/health-care/)
- **Type:** Platform
- **Key fact:** 100+ patients and stakeholders interviewed in 7 countries
- **Universities:** [University of St. Gallen](https://www.sugar-network.org/en/network/universities/hsg/), [Design Factory Melbourne · Swinburne](https://www.sugar-network.org/en/network/universities/dfm/)
- **Team:** 6 master students
- **Disciplines:** Business Innovation, Communication Design, Strategic Design, Experience Design, Industrial Design

## Challenge

Merck first asked for a digital assistant for people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS). With Merck's agreement the team broadened this to non-medical ways to improve quality of life beyond treatment.

## What the team learned

Needfinding surfaced five core needs: certainty, self-determination, purpose, self-confidence and social connection. The unpredictable disease course creates constant uncertainty, and needs change most with disease progression.

## What they built

Three connected parts: Wear, a wearable that measures gait, muscle activity and body temperature; Empower, an app with health transparency, peer tips and a way to contribute to research; and Accelerate, data services for healthcare providers.

How it evolved:

1. Early prototypes: patients rejected visible wearables as stigmatising, so data capture had to be effortless.
2. Recommendation engine tests: patients distrusted machine advice and preferred specialists or peer-voted tips.

## Results

- Over 30 prototypes were tested with users across the project phases.

## Impact

Merck liaisons agreed the project should continue beyond the course. The team assessed three routes, an internal project, a joint venture or a startup, with a roadmap per component.

> I would not want to track my walking abilities every day because then I would have proof that I am getting worse.
>
> – Person living with MS, prototype tester

## Full project text

Multiple Futures is a data-driven health monitoring ecosystem aiming at improving the quality of life for people living with Multiple Sclerosis  
(MS). This means creating value for people with MS through holistic health monitoring, as well as the opportunity to contribute to MS research.  
Multiple Futures also leverages the data collected from users to offer services to healthcare providers to accelerate and facilitate human-  
centric health care innovation for the field of MS.

### Challenge

The challenge given to us, team Multiple Futures, by Merck is to first understand what it is like to be living with Relapsing-Remitting MS to focus on a solution space and implement a concept which helps improve the quality of life of PLMS (people living with MS) beyond treatment.

### Solution

Multiple Futures is a data-driven health monitoring ecosystem aiming at improving the quality of life for people living with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). This means creating value for patients through holistic health monitoring, as well as the opportunity to contribute to MS research. Multiple Futures also leverages the data collected from patients to offer services to healthcare providers to accelerate and facilitate patient-centric health care innovation for the field of MS.

### Impact

At the heart of Multiple Futures are three components: the Multiple Futures wearable to enable the seamless and effortless collection of  
patient data; the Multiple Futures mobile application for MS patients  
and finally the Multiple Futures online platform for healthcare providers and research institutions. Together, the three components enable us to  
empower patients and to create the future of MS research and medical care development.

## Who built it.

- Anna Rosenkranz, Business Innovation (University of St. Gallen)
- Christina Bibawi, Business Innovation (University of St. Gallen)
- Morgan Kindler, Business Innovation (University of St. Gallen)
- Eleanor Downie, Communication & Strategic Design (Design Factory Melbourne · Swinburne)
- Harry Robertson, Industrial Design (Design Factory Melbourne · Swinburne)
- Mattia Vettorello, Experience & Strategic Design (Design Factory Melbourne · Swinburne)

## Sources

Summarised by the SUGAR editorial team from the team’s project page, final documentation and SUGAR Expo booklet.

Open the 2017/18 booklet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LD0xTZdBBCcOIfxK6yoSEr_n-G8R4_kl/view?usp=sharing