Back
Remote Patient Monitoring
Helping patients report their blood oxygen levels accurately to their doctors.
End-End design delivery
Experience Mapping
Year
2024
Timeframe
6 months
Objective
A major feature level release for our clinical trial product that would allow clinical teams to gather valuable pulse and blood oxygen level data from patients who are enrolled in clinical trials. This would be crucial in helping the business predict side effects and alter clinical trial strategies appropriately and fasten drug discovery and development.
Challenge
Given our target demographic of middle-aged to older adults, I suggested the critical need for comprehensive user research and testing. To ensure a user-centric approach, I proposed and implemented both formative and evaluative testing phases from the project's inception. This was challenging as I had to navigate the timeline proposal with Product owner to make sure we include research as part of the delivery.
This process involved:
Collaborating with cross-functional teams, including clinical scientists, legal patient safety experts to gather requirements and then conducting initial formative research to understand user needs and pain points.
Developing prototypes based on these insights.
Executing two rounds of evaluative testing to refine and validate our design decisions.
Timeframe
4 months in total from discovery to prototyping, testing and handover. Working as the sole product designer along with a content designer and a researcher as part of our device tribe on the digital patient solutions team.
Findings
I used hi-fidelity Figma prototypes using variables and interaction patterns to mimic an exact vision for the product we foresaw.
I found patients were wearing their pulse oximeters before actually interacting with the app that could give us extra junk data that could skew the results for the clinical teams and hinder business objectives.
We understood asking patients to take a measurement during sitting and walking has to be personalised, inclusive and consider their daily lives and be mindful of context. We found this by focusing on lifestyle questions during the pre-testing interviews.
Example: One patient reported they use a walking stick for going on short walks. We realised we did not have this level of inclusive instructions on the product yet.
Patients did not remove their device at the intended time or removed it too soon. This meant data loss for the clinical teams.
Process
I worked with content designers and illustrators to bring our insights to life and to make visuals aesthetically simple and understandable while communicating what a patient has to do every step of the way
I had regular sessions with engineers to make sure what we are proposing is technically feasible in the limited time we had to release the feature for studies in the market.
Working with scientists and key stakeholders from clinical teams, we understood data integrity was the most important goal for the business. We had to understand requirements, break them down into design and technical solutions to ensure this was met. This was done through workshops, multiple rounds of stakeholder presentation where I led the discussion and initiatives.
Results
Remote patient monitoring module for taking a blood oxygen level reading is live currently. Patients are using it today and we are gathering live, validated data that's helping clinical trials move faster and take better decisions.
Patients have reported that the app is intuitive and easy to use, with clear instructions guiding them through the process of taking readings. The behavioural design elements and UX patterns we implemented have effectively addressed the challenges identified during user testing, ensuring that patients wear and remove their pulse oximeters at the right times.
Clinical teams have expressed satisfaction with the quality and consistency of the data being collected. The app has significantly reduced the risk of data loss and has provided valuable insights into patients' health status. This has enabled clinical teams to make more informed decisions about potential side effects and adjust trial strategies accordingly.