"Change in context brings changes in the content" - Prof. Anil Gupta
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Banking Application for Lentra
Northwell is the largest integrated healthcare system in New York State committed towards caring for millions of individuals and their families.
Parsons SDM partnered with Northwell to look into how they could personalize and digitally transform patient and caregiver experiences.
TEAM
Soumil Panwar (UX Designer), Aditya Lele (Product Manager)
My Role
Conducted stakeholder workshops to capture business insights, condensed goals into actionable objectives informed by primary research, development of high fidelity prototype
DURATION
6 Weeks
Process
We followed the double diamond model to propose a strategic recomendation to the client partner.
IMMERSION
Dove into secondary research to build context around healthcare and break down goals into actionable research strategy
SYNTHESIS
Interviewed various stakeholders to find insights, pain points and motivations of the users to formulate opportunity statements
IDEATION
Conducted ideation workshops with stakeholders to break biases and set grounds for innovation in patient journeys
PROTOTYPE AND TEST
Developed low to high fidility prototypes and tested with patients and caregivers leveraging usertesting.com
Healthcare is
Complex and Ambiguous
33%
of U.S. adults went without recommended care, did not see a doctor when sick, or failed to fill a prescription because of costs
average wait time for a new patient-physician appointment
24 days
How might Northwell decrease entry barriers and increase accessibility in the healthcare system?
Opportunity
Opportunity
How might Northwell offer care for social determinants of health (SDOH) that prevent patients from staying on top of their health?
Healthcare is
Missing Context
80%
of the factors that influence our health operate outside hospital walls
average cost of no-shows per patient for health systems
$200
Lost in Translation
3.1 m
immigrants are living in New York, of which 50% have a limited english proficiency
of New Yorkers identified as having difficulties associated with limited english profeciency
23%
Healthcare is
Opportunity
Phases of a Medical Journey
Healthcare starts at home where a patients personal motivation helps him to book his first medical appointment and extends to when they are back home. Hence, we broke down health journeys into 3 stages to map and locate the impact of the 3 opportunity areas we identified.
ACCESS TO CARE
A patient's healthcare journey starts with the initial step of awareness and action towards starting a healthcare journey
DELIVERY OF CARE
Initial experiences with the system begin when a patient is actually receiving the healthcare service they need
EXTENDED CARE
The path to recovery after a patient has been diagnosed and has left the hospital when friends and family take responsibility
Sensemaking within Chaos
Primary research with 34 patients, 12 caregivers and 4 doctors helped us to identify pain points and motivations to leverage while designing for.
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So I had a strong migraine and went to the hospital, I made an appointment with a primary doctor, who later directed me to a neurologist and by the time I got my results back my headache was already gone and so were my dollars. Next time I am simply going to CVS.
Priya
Patient
Ambiguity Breeds Avoidance
People have a preconceived notion that the healthcare system is complex and inaccessible, which creates fear in their minds leading to avoidance.
Key Research Findings
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People perceive that the healthcare system is complex
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Lack of precise and clear information
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Lack of trust in the system
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Ambiguous estimates and costs
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Hard to figure out what doctors you need
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Self-medication is a widely accepted practice
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I was about to deliver Emilio. I didn’t take the translator service because I was worried about the cost and I didn’t want another stranger in the room. As my contractions worsened, I struggled to understand what they were saying. I wished there was someone who could support me in Spanish, but it was too late.
Sofia
Patient
Familiarity Breeds Comfort
The needs of patients with poor english are often multi-faceted, ranging from functional translation supports to emotional support, advocacy, and cultural bridging.
Key Research Findings
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Lack of empathy & belongingness
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Lack of awareness of eligible services & costs
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Lack of guidance to identify symptoms of health issues
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Services are not offered at the right time
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There exist communication gaps & language barriers
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We think about people trusting us and we’re trusted messengers, but we don’t think about how they view trust. This is chronic behavior in health systems and community-based organizations. Everybody’s busy, but we forget to prioritize the people that matter.
Lisa
Health Care Provider
Trust is Foundational
Reaching socially excluded patients requires health systems to build trust in communities that have been historically marginalized/ ignored and offer resources in a respectful, dignified way.
Key Research Findings
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Lack of trust in the system
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Lack of awareness of eligible services
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Lack of guidance
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Lack of belongingness
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Feeling of being unheard & self-conscious
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While I was suffering in pain, my doctor and specialist kept sending me back to each other. I felt like I was running in circles with no answers and real help! When I found a new doctor, I had to get more tests and scans because my old doctors never faxed them to the new one.
Rachel
Patient
Co-Ordination is Paramount
Communication, between a patient’s care team of doctors, surgeons, nurses, and caregivers is fragmented and siloed, often leaving the patient or caregiver chasing for answers.
Key Research Findings
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Communication with doctors is isolated
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Lack of visibility into recovery timeline
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Limited ownership and control of sharing medical reports
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It takes a village to care for an unwell loved one and our family and friends support us by helping. But in certain situations, it breaks my heart to see my wife in pain. Us not knowing how to provide care or what to do to help doesn't help.
Jason
Caregiver
Care Goes Beyond the Hospital
Patients with chronic care situations require extended care outside of the hospital premises, however, symptom management and emergency care are barely catered to outside hospitals.
Key Research Findings
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Ambiguous information on care
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Lack of emergency support & assistance
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Lack of visibility into treatment duration
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Lack of proper coordination between caregivers and care team at a hospital
Formulating Design Principles
We identified and materialized 'North Stars' for Northwell to follow in the future and gradually scale up in their overall product ecosystem.
These principles are non-negotiable values that came out of research and need to resonate with all design solutions going forward.
Holistic
Care
Empathetic Communication
Cultivate Belonging
Cohesive Experience
Care for patients by providing not only functional but also emotional support, in a warm and familiar way that makes them feel at home
Request and deliver information in an empathetic, mindful and dignified manner, making patients feel heard while creating a judgment-free safe space that enables comfort and honesty
Provide inclusive and accessible experiences that cultivate a sense of belonging while keeping in mind patients cultural, social, economic and emotional aspects
Reduce friction by avoiding unnecessary, repetitive actions and proactively share information internally so that every touchpoint with Northwell feels like a seamless continuation of the last one
Enabling Access with
Specialist Connector
Similar to when a kid comes to his mom and asks for help to identify his pain, this tool takes patients through a series of steps, helping them find the right specialist according to their needs and pains.
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When a person feels pain, they can simply express their discomfort using simple questions
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They can directly point out the area(s) of discomfort and select the intensity of pain
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The backend would capture the location, intensity, frequency and duration of pain to recommend a specialist the person should see for the problem
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They can then directly go and schedule and appointment with a doctor
Assisting and Guiding with
Health Advisors
Most patients do research before visiting a doctor. However, some patients require additional support. The health advisor coaches patients according to their needs across the entire journey.
“Like an advisor for college students”
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Initiated after appointment booking, people have access to a health advisor, a personified chatbot
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The health advisor would provide information about eligible services and reduce complexity by giving information beforehand
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For specific details that are beyond the capabilities of AI, the health advisor(AI) adds a cultural advocate(human) in the chat
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These advocates are looped into the conversation based on requirements at each instant
Making Care Inclusive with
Accessibility Screener
Asking patients respectfully about external factors can help them reflect and help Northwell identify those suffering from social difficulties that can be getting in the way of accessing healthcare or recovering properly.
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Patients might be asked to fill out the accessibility screener after sign-up
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The results of this screener impact the services they require
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Over time, this data can help Northwell predict patterns of services required specific to demographics or location and inform the development of service infrastructure
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After answering the questions, statistics of the community with same conditions is displayed in order to reduce anxiety and the feeling of being alone
Key Learnings
I realized the importance of meticulous documentation and clarity of the design process when working and collaborating with a large team
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