Smarthealth

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Overview

Smarthealth is your all-in-one wellness companion, offering essential health information and immediate medical assistance. Built on the new patient paradigm, it facilitates remote, personalized treatment through a connected and continuous care pathway. With the surge in telehealth adoption, exploring seamless integration into routine practice is crucial.

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Problem space

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Patients POV

This was a descriptive cross-sectional study using a structured self-administered questionnaire on 200 patients (54% females and 46% males, aged between 20 and 65 years), post admission, selected by multistage sampling.

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Problem statement

Patients experience poor/epileptic healthcare today because of existing cyclical, reactive and disconnected healthcare delivery.

The convergence of lifestyle modernization and an aging population has fueled a surge in chronic diseases like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and hypertension. This, in turn, imposes a significant economic burden on healthcare systems and contributes to 70% of global deaths. We recognized that the current healthcare landscape in Nigeria is plagued with poor response times or long delays in consultation.

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Main user challenges/problems

1. Reactive healthcare
2. Disconnected healthcare
3. Cyclical patient journey
4. Poor access to healthcare

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Defining the users

Narrowing the users down to two patients and two doctors. I wanted to get this stage very clearly defined to ensure that we would have a guide for weighing future design decisions; this was important for a product for which the target audience isn’t finite.

How might we?

Bridge the gap between technology and palliative healthcare; encouraging a preventive, connected and continuous healthcare delivery.

‍Full transparency: I was not a large part of the initial research proposal process, but did join the team prior to key decisions about its implementation were made, and helped drive that implementation process and validation.

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Goals + opportunity for impact

1. Improved productivity for Doctors
2. Doctor on Demand
3. Fewer delays
4. Continuous Engagement

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A thematic approach

I conducted a qualitative study at a Lagos tertiary hospital, interviewing specialists and GPs to explore their Telehealth experiences, focusing on barriers, enablers, and opportunities. Using inductive thematic analysis on data from 15 health practitioners, the goal was to understand technology's role in positively shifting healthcare delivery. Interviews delved into their transition stories, clinical interactions, and decision-making using Telehealth, covering perceptions of benefits, barriers, and opportunities.

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Analysis of qualitative feedback highlighted the importance of effective communication and data analysis in health technology.

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Although it may not be immediately apparent, it is crucial to acknowledge that this feedback was derived from an extensive amount of qualitative feedback that was collected over several hours of interviews. Users expressed a strong interest in having accurate and easily accessible patient data. This highlights the importance of data analysis in health technology, which allows healthcare professionals to make informed decisions, enhance patient outcomes, and streamline operational processes. Moreover, I discovered that transitioning to a Telehealth delivery mode presents new challenges for clinicians as they need to adjust to a different clinical environment to perform their tasks.

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Sherlocking the data

So how do we gather and analyse this data?. Exploring how data analysis can improve patient outcomes and optimize healthcare operations. Our research revealed four types of analysis: descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive. By leveraging these types of analysis, healthcare organizations can make informed decisions and develop effective treatment plans for patients, resulting in better healthcare delivery.

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We developed these 6 feature segments from the analysis

By incorporating these features into a tele-health product, patients would have access to a comprehensive suite of tools and resources to help them;

1. Better manage their health
2. Communicate effectively with their healthcare providers, and
3. Actively participate in their care journey.

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Low fidelity wireframe

Making use of low fidelity wireframes and user flow diagrams, I was able to visualise the data from user research. By collaborating with the engineering team, I came to understand the constraints of design decisions on building this product.

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Validating product ideas with user testing

I led a few moderated usability tests focusing on the “Book a Doctor” feature.
We tried to find out

1. How the users felt about booking a healthcare professional virtually
2. The ease of booking a doctor
3. The level of trust in the system.

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It was at this point;

After analysing the behavioural response from the tests, I learned that; users were concerned about regulation and data security. How are their information being shared (Share medical record) with a “stranger”.
This was one of the themes deduced from the initial user interview and thematic analysis.

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Back to the drawing board with A/B

How can we

- Instill more trust in the system?
- Mitigate compromising quality healthcare service?

In order to provide a solution to this problem. I designed 2 low fidelity screens based on one of the product features "Book an appointment" keeping in mind granular options to be NDPR compliant and let the patient have more control of their information and personal data.
I conducted an A/B Test session with 14 users that fit our demographic for potential users.

After the second test, i found that 10 of the users displayed positive feedback on option A

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UI Design

After creating the design system, I started developing screens for both web and mobile keeping things consistent across all the elements in the product.

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Find a medical center

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Speak to a doctor

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Predictive analysis with dedicated symptom checker

Look up your symptoms to get an understanding of what may be wrong and get connected to a health care provider.

Improving healthcare access with Book an appointment feature

Outcome + achievements

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Real life usage

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Reflections

Testing my ideas as a way to not only validate decisions but also to get constant feedback (testing with colleagues, stakeholders and the target demographic).
In designing the product, I focused on the patient side of things first and put a pause on the Doctors flow; this helped me break down high level problems into smaller bits this improved efficiency.

There’s a lot more to share, and unfortunately a lot of it is not allowed to be shared publicly . If you’d like to learn more about my work on Smarthealth, please reach out!