Research

Investigate factors that impact patient care

I interviewed subject matter experts (IBCLCs and NPs) to understand where patient attrition occurs during care.

Between appointments, parents are asked to keep their providers up to date on their and their baby's well-being with forms and surveys. With SimpliFed's network of 24/7 support, new providers might interact with a patient at any point in their care.

Patients need to feel that their provider is aware of their experiences, otherwise, they are more likely to drop out of the care pathway.

With multiple providers, it's important that patient care is tracked from one appointment to the next

Factor 1: Patient-Provider Communication

In addition to forms and surveys, providers are sending their patients resources through email, SMS, and EHR portals between appointments. There's a lot of communication between one patient and multiple providers, but no centralized space for it all.

I worked with SimpliFed providers to walk through the patient care pathway and find opportunities where the SimpliFed app could automate and document routine aspects of patient-provider communication.

This user flow shows what information providers need to collect from patients between appointments and how patients are asked to share it.

Factor 2: Patient Data

By mapping out communication needs to specific points in the patient care pathway, I identified user-centric solutions to keep patients informed about their care while reducing repetitive communication tasks for providers.

I worked with SimpliFed's founder, COO, and 3 partner companies to align on a service design blueprint that states how, when, and where patient data is handled on the back end of the SimpliFed app:

• eHealth Record System
  Patient's quality of care is reduced when their care team isn't on the same page. The SimpliFed app matches patients with providers on athenahealth and captures notes from each visit, so no detail is overlooked.

• Patient-Centric Relationship Management
  PhaseZero integrates with athenahealth and the SimpliFed app to automate communication, so providers can share appointment information, resources, and guidance with patients.

• Developers
  I walked through the SimpliFed app design with engineers from CodeDistrict and worked with them to align on service design touchpoints between athenahealth and PhaseZero.

Above: Patient and provider touchpoints for the full care pathway with the SimpliFed app
Below: Touchpoints for the text-only service

To test the discoverability of Checklists on the SimpliFed app, I invited customers to participate in task-based usability studies. I designed interactive prototypes and made improvements between studies with the RITE method to maximize the salience of Checklists.

After 2 iterations, participants went straight to their Checklist when asked to "find out what your provider wants you to do before your next appointment."

Improving Checklists with Rapid Iteration, Testing, and Evaluation