CLIENT PROJECT
knowRX Health
Problem
knowRX seeks to meet a need for doctors and care teams to provide better outpatient care and stay informed
Solution
To meet this need, my team and I worked with knowRX to create the Physician Information Exchange System, or PIXS.
Project Overview
knowRX Health is a cloud-based digital healthcare platform. Through General Assembly, five students including myself were contracted to create a web portal for physicians and care teams. The purpose of this portal is to monitor patient health, communicate with other members of the care team, and facilitate continuing education.
Nadia di Trapani
Sheridan Culver
Larsa Albakry
Emma Walsh
My team consisted of myself and four other designers, Emma Walsh, Larsa Albakry, Nadia Di Trapani, and Sheridan Culver. We also worked with stakeholders from knowRX in the creation of this portal. The process was collaborative, but Emma, Larsa, and I primarily focused on research while Nadia & Sheridan constructed the wireframes and prototypes.
The Problem
We began with an analysis of what problem we intended to solve. Through our research and research provided by knowRX, we explored the unintended side effects that medications can have on patients. We discovered the following:
One billion people in the US accessed healthcare in 2022. Two thirds of these visits resulted in medication prescriptions.
Medication side effects lead to over 750 hospitalizations daily and 125,000 deaths yearly, specifically in people over 65.
Tracking tools are available to help doctors and care teams avoid errors and deliver quality care, but these tools are clearly not being used, or are insufficient.
This brought us to the root of the problem, and the main question we needed to answer:
How might we make it easier for healthcare providers to deliver optimal patient care and avoid errors?
The Goal
To solve this problem, we worked with knowRX to create the Physician Information Exchange System, abbreviated PIXS. This portal will allow physicians and care teams to more easily keep track of patients' status, while also providing continuing education and important information about changes to relevant medications or drug research.
The Process
This was a 3 week agile sprint. We followed a modified d.school process, and our toolkit included Figma, Figjam, Illustrator, Google Docs, Google Forms, & Google Sheets.
DISCOVER
- Client Interviews
- Online Surveys
- User Interviews
DEFINE
- Competitive Analysis
- Affinity Mapping
- User Persona & Journey
- Problem Statement
DESIGN
- Information Architecture
- Site Map
- Wireframes
- Usability Testing
DELIVER
- Proposed Solutions
- Hi-fi Prototype
User Interviews
We wanted to gather some data from professionals based on their firsthand experience. We conducted two surveys with a combined total of 18 respondents. Those surveyed included:
We asked respondents how they stay informed and up-to-date on drug-related information. The survey results showed that information was primarily obtained through medical literature, clinical decision support software, and through conferring with colleagues.
We gathered some key quotes from our interviews, which gave us a better idea of what the user is currently experiencing, as well as identifying pain points. We grouped the most significant quotes into a few categories: Patient tracking, new drug information, and continuing education.
"There’s a lot of room for information to get dropped with the current patient tracking system which is definitely a patient safety issue."
"The most well intentioned patients can still be poor historians, which is a term for those who don’t know their medical history, doctor’s names, or medications."
"I usually have to reach out to a minimum of 2-5 different care providers to compile all of a patient’s clinical records. Sometimes I get partial records when one provider sends me information and the other does not respond to my request."
"I learn about new drug and treatment information from a few medical associations that I regularly check online, receive emails from, or read their magazines."
"I’d prefer if I could access information on new drugs without having to go into a separate system to look for things so I can make better decisions in the moment."
"I’ll reach out to the pharmacy when I have specific medication questions but communicating with pharmacy teams can be difficult based on mine and their limited availability."
"Getting my continuing education is a little bit all over the place."
"Scheduling and managing my continuing education classes is difficult with my work schedule."
"I’ll reach out to the pharmacy when I have specific medication questions but communicating with pharmacy teams can be difficult based on mine and their limited availability."
Physicians need a better way to
access information.
Medical team does not always have access to view records of patient medications, diagnosis, or care providers which leads to risk when providing care.
Healthcare providers do not have a singular platform to get updated on new drugs and medication and sometimes rely on word of mouth to learn this information.
There are too many options for accessing continuing education which makes it hard to keep track of certifications and licenses because they are not in one place.
The Time-Constrained Physician
The Time-Constrained Physician is an outpatient caregiver who works in a multidisciplinary specialty medical practice. They have been practicing medicine for 15 years. They are passionate about providing comprehensive care to their patients and staying up-to-date with the latest advancements in medical research and technology.
Wants and Needs
- Want to provide quality care for all patients regardless of limited or incomplete medical history access.
- Need to collaborate with patients and care team members to support patient needs.
- Need to stay up-to-date on new drugs & medications to provide the best medical advice, treatments, outcomes, and opportunities to their patients.
- Need to keep their licenses current through continuing education.
Current Experience
Prepared and Ready to Go
They begin by logging into the patient tracking software to see what patients are on the schedule and plan their day. They’ll need to be efficient because they are fully booked with back to back appointments.
Unknown Patient History
The first patient describes feeling dizzy and that their eyes are itchy. The physician asks what medications they’ve been taking recently, but the patient doesn’t remember the names of what their other doctors prescribed.
Further Research Needed
After some time, the patient remembers they have a photo of their medications on their phone. Since the physician is not familiar with one of the medications, they step away to research online while they also run a test on the patient.
Running Behind Schedule
After a tedious bit of research, the physician learns that the medications are negatively interacting with each other, which is causing the side effects. Time spent researching means they will be late for the next appointment.
Frustrations
- The physician experiences frustration when critical information is overlooked leading to potential side effects. They are compelled to manually cross-reference patient prescriptions with a separate reference tool to identify potential drug interactions.
- They would like access to vital signs, as they are unable to promptly identify situations such as a sudden drop in blood pressure. This absence of timely information results in a time-consuming process of testing and research.
- The physician expresses concerns about the possibility of prescribing conflicting medications and their own potential oversight, emphasizing the need for comprehensive and up-to-date information to ensure optimal patient care.
What is most important?
We conducted a survey in order to determine what the most important information is for providers, so that we could prioritize the structure of our portal accordingly. Care providers ranked the following as the most important:
List of medications & supplements
Electronic Medical Records
A patient’s demographics
Medication plan adherence
Previous diagnoses
Getting Everyone on the Same Page
To address these concerns, our team has developed a convenient and comprehensive platform that reimagines how healthcare providers access important drug research and continuing education enabling them to stay at the forefront of medical advancements.
We integrated the Owl App to give physicians critical access to patient insights, and statistics.
Our streamlined, user-friendly experience will not only enhance knowledge, but also enhance coordination within care teams and improve overall patient care.
For our high-fidelity prototype, we designed an intuitive and easy-to-navigate platform that allows healthcare providers to quickly view patients, search & access drug research, and educational resources.
Seamless Integration with The Owl App
By including data from the Owl App (knowRX's patient-centered companion app), PIXS allows physicians to gain powerful insights about their patients. With patient participation, physicians can precheck for drug interactions before prescribing medications.
Personalized Suggestions
We implemented a recommendation system that suggests relevant modules and continuing education materials based on the provider's professional development goals.
Progress Tracking & Certification
We implemented features that enable healthcare providers to track their progress in completing continuing education requirements, earn badges, and generate reports for credentialing purposes.
Curation of Trusted Sources
We included a platform for reputable sources of drug research and continuing education content, such as peer-reviewed journals, accredited institutions, and industry experts, to provide reliable and up-to-date information.
Collaboration & Discussion
We incorporated features that facilitate collaboration and discussion among healthcare providers, fostering a community of practice where they can share insights, ask questions, and engage in professional discussions.
Mobile Accessibility
We developed a mobile-responsive platform that enables healthcare providers to access critical information on the go, allowing them to stay updated and learn at their convenience.
Although our part in this project was done, we outlined some potential next steps for knowRX to consider going forward.
We determined the following to be the most important priorities to consider at this point in the project:
- Allow the software to integrate with any EMS system to pull full patient records.
- Allow physicians to add information about patients and share with the Owl App so that care teams can be informed.
- Add capability to scan previous medical notes/records and share with the Owl App, so that the patient’s information is up-to-date shortly after onboarding.
- Add the ability for physicians to provide their contact info as well as list of diagnoses and medication information, which will automatically synchronize with the Owl App.
In conclusion, we believe that with this platform, physicians and care teams will be better equipped to care for patients. It will allow them to be notified right away about important changes in medications, stay current on continuing education, and keep care teams informed.
This will help to mitigate adverse effects from medications, promote efficiency, and provide overall better care for the patient.
