Two weeks ago I attended the UXD Healthcare conference in Amsterdam.
It was a two-day event attended by roughly 100 UX design professionals and a handful of clinicians. The 28 speakers talked about their experiences designing healthcare solutions, and while some talks were better structured and felt more on-topic than the others, all of them were quite interesting.
Because of a rather small number of people in attendance, I decided to write a summary of the main takeaways for those of you who did not attend. I hope this article helps you decide whether or not you should attend next year’s UXD Healthcare in London!
01. Co-creation (in this case: designers + clinicians) is key
The magic word of UXD Healthcare in Amsterdam was co-creation. In recent months, many big (and small!) players have entered the race to create digital tools that all aim to become “the Uber of healthcare”.
Products and services that make it big will be built to be patient-first (obviously!), but also co-created alongside healthcare professionals. Only by working together with doctors, nurses, physical therapists, and other healthcare professionals can you create a product that will work well, bring value to the patients, and that will actually be used by practicing clinicians.
The reality: Most health-related apps lack actual scientific research behind them. The overwhelming majority of health-related apps you can download from Google Play Store or the App Store today have not been clinically tested.
Dr. Charlotte Poot, one of the speakers at the conference, told us about an app that was supposed to be used to measure blood pressure. This app sold over 150 000 copies in the App Store, which earned its creators over half a million USD. A great feat, right? The app must have been performing marvelously, don’t you think?
Except, it turned out that it missed 80% of actual hypertension in its users*. This particular app was eventually removed from the App Store, but what about all of the users it has harmed by deterring them from contacting their doctor when they really should have?
We can agree that involving medical professionals is crucial when designing health-related apps. But is that enough? No, because —
*You can read more about this research here.
02. The medical solution that turns out to be the “Uber of medicine” will be developed to support the clinicians in aiding the patients
(As opposed to the tools they use today, which are more focused on billing, reimbursement models and whatnot.)
At KRY, we put the patient first. It’s in our mission statement, but better than that, it is a goal, a mission and a philosophy followed and respected by every team within the organization. As a usability specialist, I absolutely love it.
To ensure that our patients have the very best experience when using our product, we work hard to support the clinicians in doing their best work. And really, you should be too.
Most Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) look awful and the UX of using them is horrid. They slow the doctors working in them down to a crawl.
Dr. Dave Pao showed us what the EMR he uses looks like, and you can consider yourself lucky for not having to witness that monstrosity. Think r/softwaregore, but more 90s and without a hint of usability, information architecture, or UX thinking.
They are all like this, more or less.
As a usability specialist, I talk to a lot of people. Young people, old people, healthy people, sick people, people suffering from chronic diseases and those who never go to a doctor. All of them can agree on one thing; they hate it when they go to a doctor only to be more or less ignored as the doctor stares at his computer screen and barely even looks at them during the couple of minutes they get to speak to him.
The way most EMRs work today, they take the attention away from the patient and require clinicians to click, click, click, just to drill down to a single piece of information.
If you want to fix this, focus on designing EMRs that support pattern recognition and fast thinking*. An EMR needs to provide the clinician with necessary data quickly and effectively, allowing the doctor more time to engage with his patient on a more human level.
Build them this way, and you will have happy doctors and happy patients.
*A great read about fast thinking is Thinking Fast and Slow.
03. Support the carers
A common thread in a couple of talks throughout the two days was the lack of thought about the people who care for patients.
Mothers, fathers, spouses, children… The people who carry the noble burden of caring about terminally or chronically sick patients very often end up suffering from depression and anxiety. They often get sick (mentally and physically) and end up within the same healthcare system.
Remember them when designing your medical tools and services. As the old saying goes: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
04. Personalization of content is especially important for patients who suffer from chronic diseases
We already know that Personalization = good UX. This equation holds even more true for patients who have just been diagnosed with a chronic disease.
For example, patients diagnosed with breast cancer have reported it has been very hard for them to retain information in the weeks after being diagnosed. Unfortunately, this is exactly when a patient is bombarded with information about their condition, possible treatment methods, medicine and support groups available, and so on.
You should always examine the context of use when designing experiences, and it should never be a step you skip when designing products that will be used by people in high-stress situations such as being diagnosed with a chronic or terminal disease.
Make sure you serve the right information at the right time, avoid information and choice overload, and use natural language.
To wrap it up
For a fairly new conference, whose team is still working out some kinks when it comes to nailing that perfect balance of high-level and more nitty-gritty talks, I quite enjoyed the UXD Health Amsterdam.
I can recommend it to designers and teams who are new to the healthcare field and to those looking to network and connect with designers working on solving problems within healthcare.
See you (maybe!) at UXD Health 2020!
