Designing at an integrated healthcare network has allowed me to work in a variety of touch-points within the care delivery continuum. I've helped create tools, systems, and applications for patients and clinical staff including:
- An in-patient Nurse Rounding web application
- An Emergency Medical Services decision-support tool
- A Patient Reported Outcomes mobile application
- An updated Integrative Oncology suite
For these projects, my research and design process is as follows:
Understanding the Current State
Health systems are complicated. There are thousands of different touch points, systems, and workflows that are used to deliver care, store patient data, organize clinician workflows, etc. To truly uncover pain points that can be improved upon, my first step is always taking time to understand the current state.
Discussing the current state with hospital leadership, clinical stakeholders, and patients quickly reveals differences of mindsets, goals, and perspectives between these key players. Additionally, documenting these various perspectives of the current state acts as a unifying artifact that ensures everyone is on the same page.
Current state artifacts have been by and large the most useful thing in my toolkit as a designer, as they have helped align multiple parties on where specific projects should be focused to add the most value.
Navigating to the Root of the Problem
Many of the projects I've been introduced to tend to be solution forward. In order to determine what the real problem is that should be focused on for a particular project, deeply understanding the goals of users, customers, and stakeholders is imperative.
Throughout each of my projects at UPMC, I've had the pleasure of interviewing a range of subject matter experts, clinical staff, data analysts, and of course, patients. This combined with shadowing during contextual inquiry leads to a wealth of previously scattered information.
For example: "we need a tool for paramedics to look up medications and protocols" → "how might we enable paramedics to focus on providing quality care to patients?"
Testing and Validating Ideas
Testing solutions and ideas in the healthcare setting can sometimes be a uniquely difficult challenge: in other industries, when testing a new idea through something like an A/B test, failure looks like a user taking more clicks/time to get their order processed. In healthcare, a failure of a new solution has the potential to negatively impact a patient's health.
I've found success at UPMC testing ideas through utilizing simulators - mocking the environments in which a user would find themselves in, such as the back of an ambulance, but removing the extremely negative consequence of actually dealing with an emergency situation.
This area of my design process has proved the most challenging throughout COVID19. As an adaptation, I've ran various virtual simulations that help users visualize new situations to gain understanding as to how they would react.
Designing with a Business-Hat
One of the more eye-opening lessons I've learned as a designer at UPMC is the importance of truly understanding the business's goals in order for a project to succeed. Having an innovative idea that solves a pain point for patients is wonderful, but understanding the ways in which that new value for patients also impacts the healthcare system is equally as important.
How do hospitals, insurers, relevant government agencies measure success/improvement? Who would be willing to pay for your solution? Why? Understanding how your new idea aligns with the goals, incentives, and structure of the healthcare ecosystem can help escalate projects and make them as 'easier sells' to leadership, all while maintaining the core of human-centered design.
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