Summary
SimpliFed supports parents and babies with 24/7 care
SimpliFed is a telehealth startup that provides breastfeeding support and baby-feeding resources for parents via telehealth appointments.
During a 12 week contract, I conducted user research to understand the current experience of SimpliFed patients and providers, created a service design blueprint with a partnering telehealth start-up, and redesigned the SimpliFed app to improve patient-provider communication.
Role
UX Design
UX Research
Deliverables
High Fidelity UI
Service Design Blueprint
Tools
Figma
Loom
Timeline
12 Weeks
Spring 2022
Goal
Every pregnancy has challenges – finding support shouldn't be one of them. When patients drop out of their care plan and stop getting support, the risk of health complications increases.
SimpliFed's goal is to reduce patient attrition by improving the quality of care before, during, and after appointments.
Research Question
What impacts the quality of patient care?
I interviewed subject matter experts (healthcare providers and patients) and learned that patients are more likely to stop seeking care when providers don't check in between appointments. Interviews revealed a core need for patients: they want their providers to be aware of their condition before their next appointment, but find it hard to express how they're doing.
Insight 1: Reaching out to providers is difficult for patients
Patients are often too overwhelmed to reach out to their healthcare providers about their well-being, especially once they begin caring for a newborn baby.
Insight 2: Getting patient updates is time-consuming for providers
Checking in with patients can be mentally taxing and time consuming for healthcare providers because they need to use multiple platforms to send resources, check progress, and deliver informed care for patients.
Takeaway: Routine check-ins can be handled more quickly
Providers need a faster way to update their patient's care plan, and patients need an easier way to communicate their progress to providers between appointments. Using this insight, I worked with 3 partnering companies (PhaseZero, athenahealth, and CodeDistrict) to create a HIPAA-compliant service design blueprint that defined the flow of patient data through the healthcare ecosystem to the SimpliFed app.
I designed Checklists to make high-level appointment information clear to patients while reducing repetitive check-in tasks for providers.
Checklists give patients easy access to resources and forms sent by their providers, while allowing providers to see the progress their patients have made since the last appointment.
View the prototype →
Rapid Iteration, Testing, and Evaluation (RITE)
Why test the usability of Checklists?
I proposed Checklists to consolidate patient forms and resources into one space, while simultaneously allowing providers to stay informed about their patient's status between appointments. After aligning on the implementation of the feature with my stakeholders, I organized a usability study sprint to test and refine the Checklists design so patients would not miss important forms or resources related to their appointments.
Using the Rapid Iteration, Testing, and Evaluation (RITE) method, I evaluated and iterated upon Checklists with 6 SimpliFed patients. Following the iterations, patients located their appointment-specific action items successfully and more quickly than they had with the initial design.
After 2 iterations, participants opened their Checklist right away when asked "Do you have anything to fill out before your next appointment?"
With more time at SimpliFed, I'd explore how the timing of notifications and presentation of questionnaires (e.g. patient well-being, NPS) impact patient's perceptions of their care. While standardized forms are important to use in a clinical setting, how these forms are introduced and when patients are reminded to complete them can be optimized to create positive patient experiences.
If you're curious to learn more about this project, feel free to reach out!
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