Context
Careclues wanted to build a product for the medical industry to help doctors, patients, clinics & hospitals by building an unified PMS and EMR system.
The project was unique in its own way. A unified PMS & EMR system had not previously been thought of. As complex as EMR systems are, we had to ensure it met industry standards and at the same time stood out for its features & usability.
Problem Statement
While an EMR system and a PMS posed individual unique challenges of their own, a larger problem was to combine the two systems into one product and make them the two facets of the monolithic product. Basis our research and discussions, we realized that the efficacy of the data presentation and the intuitiveness of the UI will decide the success with the intended audience. We also realized that smaller physician and clinical practices while being more receptive to technology, critically often lacked the tools and training that might be available at larger hospital chains, thus necessitating our design to be as simple as it gets. Novel interface paradigms can be great for consumer products, but familiarity and clarity hold more weight with our intended audience.
In overall terms for the product we’re focussing on a few critical aspects, namely:
- Clarity of information
- Data presentation
- Intuitive navigation
- Obvious UI paradigms
- Fast accessibility of features
Specifically for each facet:
Electronic Health Records
Seamlessness • Comprehensiveness • Robustness
For EMR’s, presenting physicians and nurses with a streamlined visual snapshot of medical records could improve readability of content. EMRs lack usability because they have too many complex steps and tasks. The complexity of the interface needed to be simplified into a lightweight user experience.
For the EHR module, the objective was to allow doctors and their assistants to add great documentation, as quickly as possible. Given that doctors and their assistants get interrupted all the time, leading to incomplete records, one of the aspects under focus here, was giving them the ability and providing them an incentive to come back to an incomplete record and finish it. In terms of design elements, this could manifest as persistent notifications or contextual nudges.
EHRs by design allow for comprehensive reporting of patient health information, but not all of that data is equally important or relevant. Thus one of the key areas to focus is on Information Hierarchy. By surfacing important information early and providing the ability to filter and search effectively, the information overload can be managed effectively.
Patient Management System
Comprehensiveness • Versatality • Simplicity
For the PMS side of the redesign, some of the core functionality under consideration were:
- Patient scheduling (including reminders, alerts, and messages)
- Patient information (including EHR, past visits, vitals, medication, insurance, etc)
- Patient Billing (including billing for services, insurance, discounts, etc)
- Practice Management (including setting up clinic information, services on offer, etc)
A key focus for the redesign will be provide a better, more contextual view to doctors and their assistants. For instance, by designing and integrating a Dashboard view, users will have a much better overview of metrics like Efficiency & Revenue, not to mention facilitate better time management by surfacing patient scheduling information. This will help streamline internal workflows and processes.
The Revenue/Earnings module could also do with better data presentation. By visualizing the data instead of presenting it in a tabular format, users will gain a much better understanding of their revenue pattern and could help identify key revenue drivers, possibly allowing them to make better financial decisions.
One the things we need to discuss further concerning the PMS is the Reporting functionality. For a PMS, a robust Reporting functionality is critical. Basis discussion, we could frame this particular problem better.
With the gains from redesigning the EHR module, PMS module would benefit from enhanced documentation and fewer errors or incomplete data issues.
By redesigning the Patients module from the ground up, the PMS shall benefit from a cleaner workflow and a much better visual presentation.
We know that well designed and aesthetic interfaces are as much of an incentive to use a product as bad user experience is to being a blocker. By revamping the visual aesthetics with better design artifacts and components, the PMS shall gain a noticeable facelift, which hopefully will play a part in incentivising users to spend more time in the product. Coupled with the strategies to allow users to fill incomplete data as described earlier, the PMS shall hopefully lead to a reduction in errors and incomplete information.
Team Dynamics
The Product
EMR is a complex system. However, we had to ensure that we made the tool simple and efficient for the end-users.
One of the most critical challenges of designing the app is the complex structure of patient data. The components of an EMR remain – Patient’s Overview which contains information like vitals, hospital id, contact information, Patient’s Past Medical History, Family Medical History, Past Medication History, Treatment history and Medical directives. Structuring this data in an organised way would have helped improve the usability to drastic measures. So we did that.
We looked at EMR & EHR solutions across the world to build the best possible solution. We also had to understand major pain point of doctors, clinics and hospitals so that their concerns can be addressed by improving the usability and adding new features.
Design Considerations
Through our understanding of the issues in the existing system, user complaints, industry standard, we built a completely new information architecture for Careclues. This architecture comprised of the user transition between PMS and EMR along with other new features to make managing everything easier for all kind of users. Be it a doctor, a clinic or a hospital with staff and resources.
Again, we had to focus on the details and accuracy. Where many of the traditional EMR systems failed to take tablet into consideration, we had to ensure tablet was our first priority when we noticed a great deal of tablet usage among doctors and clinics.
Digitizing the Offline
Our focus was to create a system that follows the offline process of how a doctor assess a patient and how a clinic or hospital manages their patients, doctors, billing and resources. We built all those components and unified them in the simplest way possible to bring in a seamless experience. Not only that, we also brought the most used features upfront so that the users of the system can save time and effortlessly use the system.
Multi-User Product Architecture
EMR & PMS Systems are used by many types of users. Doctors with their own practice, Clinics, Hospitals and also by doctors who practice at other clinics, call centers, staffs and so on. The system was therefore designed in such a way that it can be used by all these users without the hassle and with the highest level of operational efficiency.
We had to cater to a wide range of users. Be it a top down approach where Clinics & Hospitals are managing doctors, patients, billing, staff and resources, to bottom up approach where Doctors are managing their own practice, self-run clinics and their schedules with other clinics and hospitals.
Tablet Friendly Design
Doctors prefer to use a tablet device more often than they prefer using a laptop for their practice management. It’s simply more convenient. So we took that feedback and built a system that helped them further with practice management and EMR.
Comprehensive Overview
Through our understanding of the issues in the existing system, user complaints, industry standard, we built a completely new information architecture for Careclues. This architecture comprised of the user transition between PMS and EMR along with other new features to make managing everything easier for all kind of users. Be it a doctor, a clinic or a hospital with staff and resources.
Again, we had to focus on the details and accuracy. Where many of the traditional EMR systems failed to take tablet into consideration, we had to ensure tablet was our first priority when we noticed a great deal of tablet usage among doctors and clinics.
Bird’s-eye view of a Practice
The entire product was built in a fashion such that a user having master access could traverse through every aspect of the clinic and do a health check. A super user doctor could access the full horizon of the clinic functions, what appointments are lined up for the day, how the call centre is functioning, look into patient records, check the subscription status of the clinic, view clinic’s display settings among others.
Doctor Centric Views
The entire product was built in a fashion such that a user having master access could traverse through every aspect of the clinic and do a health check. A super user doctor could access the full horizon of the clinic functions, what appointments are lined up for the day, how the call centre is functioning, look into patient records, check the subscription status of the clinic, view clinic’s display settings among others.
Staff Centric View
The entire product was built in a fashion such that a user having master access could traverse through every aspect of the clinic and do a health check. A super user doctor could access the full horizon of the clinic functions, what appointments are lined up for the day, how the call centre is functioning, look into patient records, check the subscription status of the clinic, view clinic’s display settings among others.
Results
Through our understanding of the issues in the existing system, user complaints, industry standard, we built a completely new information architecture for Careclues. This architecture comprised of the user transition between PMS and EMR along with other new features to make managing everything easier for all kind of users. Be it a doctor, a clinic or a hospital with staff and resources.
Again, we had to focus on the details and accuracy. Where many of the traditional EMR systems failed to take tablet into consideration, we had to ensure tablet was our first priority when we noticed a great deal of tablet usage among doctors and clinics.
