“Between My Grandmother and the Doctor: Designing Interpretive Doctor”
Back in 2008, my grandmother suffered a stroke and has been bedridden ever since. Now she also lives with dementia. Ever since then, my mother has insisted on caring for her at home and she's been doing so for 17 years. The other possibilities- nursing home, long-term hospital care- are always there, but she wants my grandmother surrounded by family.
Watching them especially as they both age, I started to ask harder questions about how we end our lives.
If I were to face a serious, untreatable illness, what choices would I want at the end?
Until recently I assumed the best path was simply to follow whatever options the doctors offered.
But was that too passive- too naive?
A Book that Changed My View
Reading Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal (How to Die / How We Die Well) shifted something for me.
He describes the “interpretive doctor,” a physician who doesn’t just present treatments but helps patients decide what matters most-comfort, independence, time at home, or the longest possible life.
The book made me realize that medicine is not only about extending life; it is also about protecting dignity and honoring the way a person wishes to live their final chapter.
From Reflection to Design
Those nights at home with my grandmother, and the questions raised by Gawande’s book, became the seed of Interpretive Doctor.
I began to imagine a service that would help families like mine:
clarify personal values and rank what truly matters,
translate dense medical terminology into plain language,
and prepare thoughtful questions before meeting a doctor- so that the conversation is about the patient’s life, not just their disease.
That is where I want to end the first half of this post -
the part about my grandmother, the questions raised by Being Mortal,
and the quiet realization that we all need better ways to talk about the end of life.
In the next section I’ll shift gears and share how I began to turn those reflections into a working product -
starting with detailed prompts here in ChatGPT and moving into Lovable to build the very first prototype of Interpretive Doctor.