How to incorporate patient-oriented design in your healthcare products

About the Digital Health expert Dael Stewart

Dael is a Lead Product Strategist for the Digital Health vertical at TXI. With a human-centric approach, he is focused on delivering digital products and services supporting the needs of patients, users, and provider-companies to build more accessible, equitable, and innovative solutions across the digital health landscape. With over 20 years of experience, Dael acts as a trusted advisor to healthcare leaders across the digital health landscape; helping them understand that focusing on the patient and creating ‘sticky’ experiences drives improved outcomes for patients and systems alike. Dael’s curiosity and deep expertise allows him to both challenge and collaborate with clients, colleagues, patient advocacy groups, and healthcare systems—driving innovative end results that improve individual and collective wellbeing.

Summary and Themes Explored in This Webinar

Introduction to User-Focused Design in Healthcare

• The webinar, titled "Incorporating Patient-Oriented Design in Your Products," discusses user-focused design in healthcare.

• Moderated by Sarah, the webinar features experts in healthcare and design.

Why User-Centered Design Matters

• User-centered design (UCD) involves placing users at the center of the design process to understand their needs and behaviors.

• UCD helps reduce risk and ensures that products meet user needs, improving adoption and satisfaction.

• In healthcare, the complexity of the industry necessitates a deep understanding of patient and clinician needs, as well as those of customers who pay for the product or service.

Impact of User Design in Healthcare

• UCD is crucial in healthcare as it ensures that solutions align with patient needs, data security, and usability.

• The goal is to create products that provide value, are easy to understand, and can be effectively communicated to decision-makers.

Embracing Design Thinking in Healthcare

• Organizations can start with minimal resources, such as two employees, three participants, and gift cards for user research.

• Scaling up includes involving a product designer, UX researcher, and subject matter expert, along with more participants.

• Product designers should excel in synthesizing information and communicating visually, while UX researchers excel in listening, observing, and summarizing findings.

Here are some key points to consider regarding opportunities in healthcare design

Complex Problems: Healthcare problems are inherently complex and multifaceted. This complexity provides designers and innovators with opportunities to create comprehensive, holistic solutions that address not only the immediate issue but also related challenges. Solving complex problems can lead to significant improvements in patient outcomes and experiences.

Behavioral Change: Healthcare often involves driving behavioral change in patients and providers. This presents an opportunity to leverage design principles to influence behavior positively. For example, designing user-friendly mobile apps that encourage patients to track their health metrics regularly or creating intuitive EHR interfaces that make it easier for clinicians to provide personalized care.

Empathy-Driven Design: The emotional and personal nature of healthcare experiences allows for the application of empathy-driven design. By deeply understanding the emotions, fears, and needs of patients and providers, designers can create more meaningful and supportive solutions. This can lead to increased trust and engagement.

Improved Outcomes: Healthcare design can directly impact patient outcomes. Innovations like wearable health devices, telemedicine platforms, and predictive analytics can help identify health issues early, leading to better treatment and management. These innovations not only improve lives but can also reduce the overall cost of care.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration: The complexity of healthcare problems often requires collaboration among diverse professionals, including designers, clinicians, data scientists, and engineers. This multidisciplinary approach fosters creativity and allows for the development of comprehensive solutions that address both clinical and user needs.

Regulatory Opportunities: Healthcare is subject to stringent regulations to ensure patient safety and data security. While these regulations can be challenging to navigate, they also create opportunities for designers and innovators to create solutions that meet regulatory requirements, setting a higher standard for quality and safety.

Data-Driven Insights: The healthcare industry generates vast amounts of data. Designers can leverage data analytics and visualization techniques to provide insights that support evidence-based decision-making by both patients and providers. Data-driven design can lead to more personalized and effective healthcare experiences.

Long-Term Engagement: Healthcare design often involves creating solutions that foster long-term engagement, such as chronic disease management apps or telehealth platforms. These solutions have the potential to build lasting relationships between users and healthcare providers, resulting in improved health outcomes over time.

Preventive Care: Designers can play a crucial role in shifting the focus of healthcare from reactive treatment to preventive care. By designing interventions and tools that promote healthy behaviors and early detection of health issues, healthcare can become more proactive and cost-effective.

In summary, while healthcare design presents unique challenges, it also offers significant opportunities for designers and innovators to positively impact individuals' health and well-being. By addressing these challenges creatively and collaboratively, healthcare design can lead to transformative solutions that enhance patient experiences, improve clinical outcomes, and drive innovation in the industry.

Rex provides valuable insights for anyone working in healthcare design and digital health technology