PocketMD is a fully integrated marketplace for healthcare - changing the way patients will interact with doctors, pharmacies, and other medical providers while managing all of their healthcare records in one convenient app.
ROLE
Product Designer
YEAR
2020 - 2021
INDUSTRY
Healthcare, Technology
DESIGN TOOLS
Figma, Notion, Illustrator
CONTEXT
Working as a Product Designer at PocketMD, I led the design and implementation of the PocketMD product. The project engagement included research, wireframing, prototyping, designing a style guide, and building out the overall user experience, with a specific focus on the patient to doctor interactions and appointment features.
MY ROLE
Crafting User flows, Creative Direction, Building out the Design system, UX & UI Design, Prototyping
HOW MIGHT WE
Provide both patients and healthcare providers with a better, more usable healthcare experience?
THE PROBLEM
Traditional EMR’s today are built on the premise of digitizing healthcare records. As a consequence, little attention has been paid to how physicians interact with their data. As physicians and other HCPs need access to patient data in order to provide appropriate care, the way traditional EMR systems are currently set up complicates the documentation process and creates a fragmented experience for healthcare professionals.
Through qualitative interviews with physicians, we learned that the time set aside for medical record-keeping has doubled over the last couple years. Physicians now spend two minutes at the computer for every one minute spent with patients, and the workdays have extended into the physicians’ home lives.
Studies have shown that clinical process design and the clinical structure, both of which are highly impacted by EMRs, contribute to approximately 40 percent of clinician stress.
SCOPE
In order to decrease the amount of time doctors are spending tracking down medical information, we designed a split screen layout that allowed physicians access to the cumulative patient profile as they document an appointment with a patient.
View from the Doctor: Documenting an appointment with a patient
View from the Doctor: When the Doctor selects an item in the patient’s CPP, a drawer opens of an expanded view
PocketMD’s software was designed so that it would allow physicians easy access to data. In order to improve the physicians documentation experience, the split screen layout of the software would make it easy for physicians to see crucial patient data and interact with it, while reducing the time set aside for medical record-keeping and searching for data. The data documented can also be saved directly to the medical records and the patient’s CPP right after the appointment as well.
User testing showed us that participants considered the user interface of the split screen to be much more usable and easy to track down medical information as they document appointments. As many of the physicians tested complained about the overwhelming complexity of EPIC, PocketMD’s interface provided users with a clear overview of the patient’s profile, while being easy to use and follow.
Reducing the amount of steps
Many existing physicians were simply looking for a way to reduce the amount of steps it takes to do their routine duties and tasks on an EMR system.
EPIC EMR
PocketMD EMR
Studies indicate that physicians on average make approximately 6000 clicks a day on EPIC, resulting in doctors spending a majority of their day on inefficient processes. Doing a routine task requires too many steps and in turn creates many entry points for wrong data - thus creating potential problems.
PocketMD reduces the amount of steps required in each task by making it easy for physicians to view crucial patient data. The patient’s culmulative patient profile is all on one screen - which allows for easy access and reduces the time set aside for medical record-keeping and searching for data.
Simplified Billing
PocketMD’s simplified information flows means billing processes are integrated in the platform. This in turn allows filing with health agencies to be simplified. Administrative costs typically account for 30% of the overall costs of operating a healthcare clinic. By moving clinics to PocketMD, administrative costs are reduced significantly.
Other EMR systems and billing service platforms only assist HCPs with the billing aspect of clinic administration; however, PocketMD offers a more encompassing platform that integrates clinic services into one application.
User selecting an opened claim to view billing details
Patient using the “Find a Doctor” feature
Multifaceted platform
As EPIC and other EMR systems focus on serving users on the clinical side, one of PocketMD’s unique features is that it will also be utilized by patients as well. Locating and finding physicians and other HCPs of their choice will provide users with a more personal experience. Permitting access to physician biographies, verified patient ratings and years of experience, can enable users to learn more about PocketMD’s network of healthcare professionals before scheduling an appointment. Patients will also be able to access their health records and information, allowing users to be more informed about their current health condition.
RESULTS
In beta testing of workflows, PocketMD reduced the time spent on EMRs by over 60%. We expect time savings to be higher in subsequent iterations. In addition, PocketMD EMR also simplifies third party services like billing, appointment creation, cancellations and much more.
RESEARCH
We used 3 methods of research to help inform our strategy.
01. User Testing
We facilitated interviews with doctors and HCPs to better understand EPIC’s EMR system (the EMR system mainly used by doctors across North America) and their appointment process. From this we had them beta test our document appointment flow, along with EPIC. In beta testing of the workflows, PocketMD reduced the time spent on EMRs by over 60% when compared to physicians on EPIC. This kicked off the business case for designing the Appointment documentation modal. We understood that physicians and HCPs would mainly prefer access to their cumulative patient profile as they document an appointment with a patient.
02. A/B Testing
User testing showed that most physicians preferred access to their CPP as they documented appointments. Our design team presented users with 2 prototype options - one with a modal and another as a tabbed version. These tests would provide insight into how we wanted to design our user interface for the patient’s CPP. We found that most users preferred the modal version with the expanded drawers, allowing data to be easily viewed on one page as opposed to selecting various tabs.
03. Market Research
Our research team continued to monitor trends and clinician stats regarding EMR use cases. We found that as HCPs relied more on data and EMRs, the administrative burden for clinicians increased drastically as well. Overall we wanted to eliminate redundant workflows and allow HCPs to focus on patient care instead of administrative tasks. Our research data also suggested that processes were streamlined when patients had access to their EMR and health records online; a key attribute of PocketMD.
FOUNDATIONS
The product design team had to document foundational guidelines for our first design system.
We thoroughly considered how we would map colours out to match specific purposes in our platform, such as active and disabled buttons, success and error states, as well as various other component states. We tested various typography styles throughout our experience and how they would be consistently used throughout various use cases and components.
PROCESS
In order to get all of the components documented, designs finalized and creative assets generated on time, this project required careful planning.
I worked closely with the creative team in order to create a schedule for key dates we would need to finalize research, design, and creative by:
Planning
Our team used the productivity softwares Notion and Jira to organize our work in order to meet our deadlines. Before we started with designs, we had to carefully plan out the user flows of each feature and map out the information architecture of the platform.
Wireframing
I worked closely with my product manager to determine the key flows that we would require for this platform. I then completed design exploration for these flows while collaborating closely with the other product designers and developers I was working with.
Building the Design system and Components
Our team then proceeded to build out the design system and re-usable components . From a design standpoint, this required defining the exact specs for a component, defining any copy guidelines used, accessibility guidelines, and the behavioural anatomy of the component including its various states. This was an important process to make life easier for developer hand off.
Finalizing Creative and Developer Hand Off
Once we finalized our designs, we had to make sure all of our elements were workable components for our developers. We also had to keep our creative exploration organized and make sure our copywriter and development team could easily keep track of the requirements and work flows.
IMPLEMENTATION
We built over 200 screens between the Doctor’s side of the platform and the Patient’s side. Working in a team with 2 different designers and 3 different developers in a remote setting to implement these various flows at once presented its own set of challenges, but we were able to work effectively and manage our time well.
