Designed for Health & Wellness
PROJECT
HealthyHeart
INDUSTRY
Health & Wellness
ROLE
UXUI Designer, Researcher, and Advocate
SINCE
2019
ABOUT THE PROJECT
HealthyHeart App
Enable Personalized Healthcare & Empowering More Choices
HealthyHeart creates a system that allows individuals to design their healthcare plans, manage, monitor, and get support for their everyday healthcare needs all-in-one app.
The app encourages individuals to explore possible care options beyond conventional medicines. It also acts as a partner to keep individuals accountable to achieve their essential healthcare routines tailored to their needs, so they are in their optimal health holistically body and mind.
INSPIRATIONS
No One Knows! How Come?
You need a healthy heart to stay alive & live well!
When I learned about Atrial Fibrillation (AFib), an irregular heartbeat condition that can lead to stroke and heart failure affecting millions of deaths and people who are living with it each year I was shocked.
AFib can lead to unexpected death to anyone at any age, especially if unknown. This immensely adds stress and anxiety to a person who is living with the condition, which can lead to depression if the problem is left unresolved.
Since no one that I talked to, including the specialists, knows the real cause of AFib, and the current treatments are not guaranteed to stop it from reoccurring, I decided to do something about it.
WHY THIS PROJECT?
There were many health conditions I have been studying for years, but I decided to start this project first because it seems to be the most important organ of the body and the most urgent. Plus there are many connections between the heart and the rest of the body's health functions.
THE CHALLENGE
What's the Big Deal?
It's SILENT,
it's uncertain and
it can happen at anytime.
To prevent it, we need to be educated about it!
When it comes to silent diseases, people don't talk about it until it happens or it's too late.
The stress and anxiety can lead to other diseases that can cause even more health complications that can result in more medicines, surgeries, and insurance bills.
It is important to understand that Atrial fibrillation (AFib) is a common arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat) affecting more than 33 million people around the world. This cardiac condition also contributes to nearly 130,000 deaths each year and can lead to other health problems. Most treatments involve surgeries and being on lifelong medications.
RESEARCH
Field Studies, Interviews & Personal Observations Beyond the Ordinaries
Initial Research Questions
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What are the daily activities of people living with AFib?
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What options of treatment were presented to them?
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What are their environments?
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How do they think and feel?
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What do they say and do?
USER RESEARCH
Empathize & Listen with an Open Mind
User Interviews
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How did you feel when you were first diagnosed with AFib?
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How do you feel now?
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How do you take care of yourself?
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What supports do you have or wish you had?
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What solutions were introduced to you?
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What solutions do you wish you had?
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What challenges have you faced?
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What is your experience with the healthcare system?
I keep close communications with the users throughout the research process. Asking them questions reveals several insights that are essential to product development and innovations.
DEFINE TARGET USERS
User Persona
The field studies and the user interviews allowed me to get to know the user and helped me form the user persona to focus on for the rest of the product development cycle.
Being clear about who the product will be designed for is SUPER important! The user persona includes different aspects about the user including their background, environment, situations, and goals that drive the user's behaviors and decisions. These are essential information to help build good user-centric designs. The well-rounded consideration for different personas' ethnicities and attention to details of their cultural preferences also help ensure inclusive and accessible designs.
This user-centric approach puts the users front and center for the entire design and development cycle. Personas may be added and updated as time changes, people's behaviors change, and research evolves. Continued updates on user personas are important factors for ongoing product adoptions and retentions.
FINDINGS
People with AFib Need Support
When people are diagnosed with AFib, they often feel worried. They have many questions and there are no answers to some of the important questions, such as what is the cause of AFib? How can I prevent it from happening?
"People who have AFib need to feel safe, confident, and supportive to feel comfortable to proceed with treatments."
INSIGHT #1
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CATEGORIZE FINDINGS
Empathy Map
After the field study and the user interview, I have learned so much and translated my findings into categories on the empathy map to discover insights into users' behaviors.
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The discoveries are amazingly clear when it is visually presented.
After a better understanding of how the individual says, thinks, does, and feels. I am ready to create the user journey.
"A lot of stress can accumulate in the process of finding the right treatment. People with AFib need stress management assistance."
INSIGHT #2
VISUALIZE RESEARCH FINDINGS
User Journey Map
After research to empathy mapping, I created the user journey to discover pain points and opportunities.
"There are many opportunities and needs to build an app with helpful features for the users "
INSIGHT #3
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RESEARCH PAIN POINTS
Seeking to Understand the Root Cause
Stakeholder Interviews (Cardiologists)
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What is the cause of AFib?
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What are available treatment options?
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What are prevention methods?
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What is your advice in the case of a sudden stroke?
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What are the warning signs of heart failure and stroke?
I spoke to several cardiologists to ask the questions above and gathered the following findings, discoveries, and insights.
FINDINGS
Knowing that even surgical treatments may not stop the recurring of AFib can be scary to people who have them!
Even when seeking help from heart specialists, the currently available treatment options seem to be the surgical procedures called "Catheter Ablation," Pulsed Field Ablation," or "Cardioversion."
Catheter Ablation is a procedure where a tube of (either latex, silicone, or Teflon materials) is guided through your vein and to your heart to destroy small areas of tissue using heat to create areas of scar tissue to block faulty electrical signals that may be causing your abnormal heartbeat. A pacemaker implant may be needed for life after this procedure.
Notice that it said, "MAY BE CAUSING." It is not certain what causes AFib and this procedure can cause blood clots depending on the health of your artery and other factors.
Photo Credit: mayoclinic.org
Similar to the Catheter Ablation, the Pulsed Field Ablation is a procedure where the electrical pulse is used instead of the heat energy. The goal is to create scar tissue to block faulty electrical signals that cause AFib.
Cardioversion is a medical procedure that uses quick, low-energy shocks to restore a regular heart rhythm. Sometimes this is done using medications.
In short, none of the procedures are desirable to people with AFib due to its side effects either from the invasive surgery, pacemaker, or the medications.
"The uncertainty can cause a person to be withdrawn at times and disengaged from their health follow-ups!"
INSIGHT #4
DISCOVERY
Factors that Contribute to AFib
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Sleep quality
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Nutrition
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Digestions
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Physical fitness
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Weight
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Emotional well-being: stress, anxiety, depression, and trauma.
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Relationships
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Environments
"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."
Photo Credit: Imaging Technology News
Illustration courtesy National Library of Medicine.
A painting by Robert Thom, 1950s.
- Hippocrates 460-375 BCE
Hippocrates Examining a Child. Viewing his patient as a whole.
"The user needs to monitor their daily routines and health activities including nutrition intakes to prevent AFib and improve their health."
INSIGHT #5
RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES
Imagine Possibilities Beyond the Ordinaries
Think outside the box
Challenge the assumptions
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Being exposed to several kinds of medical practices around the world, I know that there are more options when it comes to health treatments.
My personal experience of meditation practices has led me to believe that the mind can heal the body.
How and what we feel have direct impacts on our health, so it made sense to explore the area of emotional well-being.
DISCOVERY
Mind Body Medicine
In 2021, I joined Harvard School of Public Health's Leaders in Health Program to research non-surgical alternative health treatments and prevention methods for AFib.
As a result, I learned about the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine and the Osher Center for Integrative Health.
Here, I found the scientific study between the body and mind to heal several health conditions, which proved that there is potential for non-invasive treatments for AFib.
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"Being happy, calm, and peaceful improves emotional well-being, so heart muscles can relax. Meditation and journaling can help our users!"
INSIGHT #6
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DISCOVERY
Spirituality linked with better health outcomes
“Our findings indicate that attention to spirituality in serious illness and health should be a vital part of future whole person-centered care, and the results should stimulate more national discussion and progress on how spirituality can be incorporated into this type of value-sensitive care.”
"Spiritual support is a vital key to whole-body healing. Users can benefit from support groups."
INSIGHT #7
RESEARCH POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
Explore a New Territory of Healthcare Models
Can we bridge the gap between conventional and alternative medicine practices to allow more comprehensive and holistic healthcare experiences and treatment options for people?
How can we encourage conventional and alternative healthcare providers to work together to present patients with more treatment and care options beyond the hospital settings?
How to help people take care of their health with the whole-body approach combining all aspects of health including both body and mind?
Is it possible to replace surgeries with energy healing?
"What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. Matter is spirit reduced to the point of visibility. There is no matter."
"Everything is energy and that's all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics."
Photo Credit: liveyourbestlifeguide.com
"Everything in Life is Vibration."
"Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think."
- Albert Einstein 1879-1955
Quantum in Medicine. It's time!
"Quantum physics is a promising field that intersects with medicine much more than originally understood. In terms of diagnosing different diseases, incorporating quantum mechanics into the study of medicine can allow for efficient diagnosis before symptoms even arise in a patient.
Quantum theory can even give plausible explanations for subtle DNA changes and even telomere reduction in patients who develop cancer. Utilizing quantum theory in the field of medicine can help in understanding and applying treatments for a multitude of different diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease or diverse types of cancer, and even expand upon efficient and reliable diagnosis in clinical settings."
Photo Credit: Shangrila Studio
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"Information gives confidence to users and reduces anxiety. Staying updated on the latest treatments keeps them engaged in their care."
INSIGHT #8
DEFINE
The Problem
The problem is people with AFib condition often feel unsure of the treatment's effectiveness and safety of the procedure and its side effects if they have not explored all available options. This prevents them from proceeding with the treatment since they feel afraid and find it difficult to decide.
Fear, if left unresolved, can lead to anger, frustrations, chronic stress, anxiety, depression, and other health complications.
DEFINE
The Challenge
The challenge is the time. Since AFib can come and go and can be unpredictable, people with these conditions often feel under-pressured as they are dealing with the unknown. Not knowing when, how, where, and why it will happen can feel like not knowing how much time they have, so the sooner they are presented with helpful practical information for treatments and how to manage the condition the better. This will greatly remove lots of anxiety and allow more restful sleep to begin with.
How can we present helpful information to as many people as possible and as early as possible, so they can detect, prevent, and manage the condition in the most effective ways to stop further damage?
TRANSLATING INSIGHTS INTO POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
Gathered Insights
How Might We?
#1
People who have AFib need to feel safe, confident, and supportive to feel comfortable to proceed with treatments.
#2
A lot of stress can accumulate in the process of finding the right treatment. People with AFib need stress management assistance.
#3
There are many opportunities and needs to build an app with helpful features for users
#4
The uncertainty can cause a person to be withdrawn at times and disengaged from their health follow-ups!
#1
How might we make users feel safe, confident, supportive, and comfortable in their choices?
#2
How might we help people with AFib reduce and manage their stress?
And how might we create a stress-free healthcare & health treatment process?
#3
How might we uncover all the possible opportunities to build all necessary features for people with AFib to manage their health?
#4
How might we give confidence to people with AFib, such as a sense of reliability, dependability, accountability, and safety?
- Follow-up reminders?
- Emotions trackers?
#5
The user needs to monitor their daily routines and health activities including nutrition intake to prevent AFib and improve their health.
#6
Being happy, calm, and peaceful improves emotional well-being, so heart muscles can relax. Meditation and journaling can help our users!
#5
How might we create a health monitor to keep track of daily routines, healthy activities, and nutrition intake so people with AFib can use this info to improve their health?
#6
How might we create a feature that encourages emotional well-being, such as meditation and journaling, to create a sense of happiness and peace?
#7
Spiritual support is a vital key to whole-body healing. Users can benefit from support groups.
#8
Information gives confidence to users and reduces anxiety. Staying updated on the latest treatments keeps them engaged in their care.
#7
How might we create a journey to spiritual support and access to the right support groups?
How might we measure the progress of whole-body healing?
#8
How might we deliver information in a digestible amount that does not trigger anxiety or stress to keep users updated while feeling engaged and encouraged to take action on their care?
DEFINE
Project Objective
Build a product solution that is a comprehensive all-in-one app for holistic health management where users (people with AFib) can monitor their activities and get the support they need to explore alternative treatment options to improve and treat AFib and other related health conditions with the education on preventive healthcare to live a stress-free live.
DEFINE
User Stories
As a person living with AFib condition, using the mobile application, I would like to manage, monitor, and get support to find the best treatment option, improve my health, and prevent future episodes of AFib.
DEFINE
Product Requirements
I translated How Might We? possible solutions into the product's feature requirements.
Early Stage Feature Requirements:
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Personalization
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Data synchronization
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Security
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Analytics
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Push notifications
IDEATE
How might we build an all-in-one accountable tool for people living with AFib?
TRANSLATING POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS INTO PRODUCT FEATURES
How Might We?
#1
How might we make users feel safe, confident, supportive, and comfortable in their choices?
#2
How might we help people with AFib reduce and manage their stress?
And how might we create a stress-free healthcare & health treatment process?
#3
How might we uncover all the possible opportunities to build all necessary features for people with AFib to manage their health?
#4
How might we give confidence to people with AFib, such as reliability, dependability, accountability, and safety?
- Follow-up reminders?
- Emotions trackers?
#5
How might we create a health monitor to keep track of daily routines, healthy activities, and nutrition intake so people with AFib can use this info to improve their health?
#6
How might we create a feature that encourages emotional well-being, such as meditation and journaling, to create a sense of happiness and peace?
#7
How might we create a journey to spiritual support and access to the right support groups?
How might we measure the progress of whole-body healing?
#8
How might we deliver information in a digestible amount that does not trigger anxiety or stress to keep users updated while feeling engaged and encouraged to take action on their care?
Product Features
#1
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Education Center
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Daily news to stay updated on the latest treatments
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Communication with healthcare providers
#2
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Guided meditation
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Sleep stories
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Affirmations
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Breathing exercises
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Streamlined healthcare experience in one app
#3
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Create a forum/discussion board/survey as a safe and open space for people to voice their needs/concerns and give feedback.
#4
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Appointments follow-ups/tasks reminders/notifications
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Daily emotions log
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Options to access and connect with support groups
#5
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Lists of AFib essentials health and activities trackers, such as heart rate, pulse, blood pressure, and exercises.
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Nutrition intake log/meal planning assistance
#6
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Monitor breathing to notify different states of emotions with education and suggestions to stay mindful and happy.
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Pop-up prompts to check in on current emotions throughout the day to create self-awareness.
#7
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Feature to explore spiritual practices
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Feature to connect with spiritual support groups
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Ways to share with families & friends
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Measuring the healing outcomes with storytelling and health check-ups.
#8
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A pop-up window of a short explanatory video on the latest treatment options and preventions for AFib with a prompt of suggestions to encourage the next action.
IDEATE
Flowchart
I transitioned each product feature into a block and then connected each piece in the order that would create the best user experience.
The flowchart is a quick way to work on ideas and to map the actions users will take to achieve their goals.
I also use it to communicate with others about the ideas in the early product development phase.
IDEATE
Wireframes
& User Flow
Wireframes and user flow are developed from the flowchart after the action sequences are in place. This helps me design the positions of the features, buttons, and UX content. Then, I tested out the user flow with a few users in Figma to make sure it worked well before moving to build the prototype.
IDEATE
Design System
After the positions of features and action buttons were set and ready to move forward, I created a design system guided by the design principles of the product to keep everything on brand and consistent.
This will help me create the style guide for typography, color tone, images, layout, and components and pattern libraries later on to streamline my work process, save time, and scale easily as the project evolves.
Design Principles :
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Simple - Less is more
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Intuitive - Don't make me think + Easy navigation
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Fun - Visual Appealing + Engaging + Empowering
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Useful - Get the Job Done + Encourage Positive Behaviors + Make real impacts
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Thoughtful - Inclusive + Accessible + Inspiring
IDEATE
Brand Ideas
The brand identity reflects the product, its values, and key messages.
Colors and typography are selected in this step to design the logo.
Colors that represent the heart and a sense of direction...
Typography that is easy to read...
Logos for different orientations and background colors...
PROTOTYPE
High-Fidelity Design
Once the brand and the style guide were established, I used the logo, colors, and typography to create other components including icons, search bars, and menus to complete the high-fidelity prototype.
TEST & EVALUATE
Usability Testing #1
Three users were selected to test the app in high-fidelity design individually with no instruction provided.
The first test was pure observations with no prior guidance provided to the users, it shows that some users found the app easy to use while some struggled because they were unfamiliar with what the icons meant.
TEST & EVALUATE
Usability Testing #2
with Product Features Explained
The second round of tests was conducted with the product features explained before the users tested the app and most of them found it even easier to use than the first round while the ones who struggled felt much more comfortable using the app.
So, User Manual and Help features will be added to the app for better usability. Noted!
IMPACT
Raising Awareness of
More Possibilities to Healthcare
It is so important to design healthcare product solutions with the whole body and mind approach.
The testing has shown users what is possible and opened up new perspectives on health and new dimensions of available alternative treatment options for AFib.
They have also learned that their lifestyle choices directly influence their current state of well-being.
The HealthyHeart app keeps users accountable by empowering them to personalize their healthcare the way that would fit them best, encouraging them to look for options beyond conventional medicines, and getting to know their bodies better by paying closer attention each day.
They have also learned that by being proactive with their healthcare, such as daily health monitoring, educating themselves about better lifestyle choices, and getting support, they have increased their chance of living a better quality of life.
LEARNINGS
Approach with
a Beginner's Mind
I have learned so much with this project and I am glad I have taken a step forward. There is still so much more to learn and do, especially a project that involves people's health and well-being.
The steps I have taken in this project so far have shaped the product model that will also be useful for other health conditions.
Always look beyond the ordinaries and imagine the possibilities.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
Continuing Product Iteration
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Continue researching and developing the app to provide a one-stop service digital platform to AFib patients that is inclusive and comprehensive. Explore the same product design model with other silent health conditions, such as osteoporosis and sleep apnea.
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Continue connecting and expanding a network of care providers in holistic, alternative, integrative, natural, and conventional medicines.
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Continue designing new product features to overcome needs and pain points users face, such as adding the User Manual and Help features.
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Continue testing and iterating the product to make it a single source of truth in one application that people with AFib will ever need to make their lives easier to manage.
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