Case Study:
Augmented Reality for Physicians
Healium is revolutionizing the way clinicians operate in the high-pressure environment of acute care settings. By harnessing the power of wearable computing and mobile devices, this innovative communication and workflow platform offers a seamless bridge to electronic medical record (EMR) interactions right at the fingertips of healthcare professionals.
But it doesn't stop there. Healium is at the forefront of incorporating advanced speech recognition, cutting-edge natural language understanding, and context-aware predictive intelligence to streamline operations. This trio of tech wonders works in concert to not only skyrocket efficiency but also significantly elevate the quality of patient care. In a world where every second counts, Healium stands out as a game-changer, ensuring that healthcare providers have the information they need when they need it, allowing them to focus on what they do best: caring for patients.
The Problem
Emergency Room (ER) physicians aim to provide prompt and high-quality care to patients, facing numerous challenging situations daily that demand quick and accurate medical decisions. Emergency Medical Records (EMR) were designed to support these objectives by improving the efficiency and quality of patient care.
However, EMRs have become a significant hurdle in this mission. Instead of streamlining the care process, they often complicate it, becoming time-consuming and detracting from patient interaction. This unexpected barrier suggests a pressing need to refine EMR systems to truly enhance ER physicians' ability to deliver the best possible care.
My Role
My contributions spanned user research, visual design, and prototyping, culminating in a system that significantly reduced EMR access times for ER physicians while improving patient satisfaction. Our cross-functional team's collaborative approach and my video editing skills brought to life a concept that demonstrates the profound impact of user-centered design in healthcare.
The Team
Four cross-functional Sr UX Design / Researchers
Methodologies and Techniques
Literature Review - Participatory Design - Experience Mapping - Ethnography - Usability Testing - Interviews
Tools
Photoshop - After Effects - Illustrator - Premier Pro - Axure
Empathize
Expert Interviews
Expert interviews were conducted with emergency department physicians at Overlake Hospital and Harborview Medical Center. These discussions were aimed at uncovering the essential tasks doctors need to perform, how the emergency department staff currently utilizes EHR software, the primary challenges faced, barriers to information gathering, and the integration of technology into their processes.
What are the critical tasks that doctors need to do or what information do they need during their daily process?
How does the emergency department staff currently use EHR software?
What are their primary tasks?
Where are the pain points in their process?
What barriers exist for information gathering for staff in an emergency department?
Where/how does technology fit into this process?
Attending physician - Overlake Hospital
ER physician - Harborview Medical Center
Empathize
Literature Review
A comprehensive review of existing literature on Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) provided insights into their history, implementation, and the impact on hospital environments. Despite reducing paperwork and errors, EMRs often lead physicians to spend excessive time on screens, detracting from patient interaction.
The review also explored the AMA’s guidelines on EMR system usability, wearable technology design, and its current integration with EMR systems, highlighting the benefits of mobile access to information for physician efficiency.
Define
Problem Statement
“How might a wearable technology ecosystem decrease the time emergency room physicians spend accessing electronic medical records (EMR) and improve patient care?”
Ideate
Participatory Design
A participatory design session was held with a physician from the UW Medical Center, involving them in the research and design process. This collaboration allowed for accurate problem space definition, process understanding, and enhancement of design assumptions and decisions.
Dr. Zia played a pivotal role, contributing innovative layouts and correcting team assumptions.
ER physician - UW Medical Center, sketching out her vision of the Google Glass display.
Ideate
Affinity Diagram
Through an affinity mapping session, the team brainstormed and identified innovations addressing our problem statement. Ideas were captured on post-it notes, categorized for similarity, and distilled into five key opportunities::
Integrating real-time data
Reducing information access barriers
Incorporating rich media documentation
Informing the patient
Expanding technology tool integration
Opportunity insights from the Affinity Diagram led to Design Choices
Design Choices
Notifications of important results
Surface relevant past medical history
Take pictures, audio, or video recordings
Patient dashboard with status
Real-time vitals possible by integrating with 3rd party software
Opportunities
Integrate real-time data
Reduce barriers to accessing information
Integrate rich media documentation
Keep the patient informed
Expand integration with other auxiliary technology tools
Prototype
Paper Prototyping
Early-stage conceptualization utilized paper prototyping to experiment with different interface layouts and optimization opportunities. This method's speed and simplicity supported rapid iteration and conceptual validation.
Prototype
Wireframes
Functional wireframes were developed to demonstrate user flow through the application. These wireframes facilitated testing of user flows and discoverability, essential for refining the user experience.
Test
Usability Testing
Attending physician - Overlake Hospital
ER physician - Harborview Medical Center
Usability testing involved emergency department physicians from Overlake Hospital and Harborview Medical Center, employing paper prototypes and wireframes within a headset. Six scenarios tested the ecosystem's intuitiveness and device appropriateness, covering patient assignment, interaction, lab ordering, result notifications, history review, and discharge preparation.
Final Journey Map
The culmination of research and testing was represented in a journey map outlining an ER doctor’s workflow with Healium, from initial patient interaction to discharge. This visual tool emphasized the contextual relevance of technology throughout the patient care process. The final designs adhered to principles of simplicity, functionality, visual hierarchy, and logical grouping across different form factors, showcasing the Healium concept's ability to streamline EMR access and enhance patient care focus.
Final Designs
Simplicity, function, principles of visual hierarchy, and logical groupings over differing form factors.
Navigating the new Healium concept
UW Medicine ER Physician Dr. Jasmine Zia, demonstrating the new Healium concept using a triangulation of hardware to decrease EMR time and focus on patient care
Healium Concept Video
I produced and edited a concept video to depict a day in the life of an ER physician using Healium, illustrating the seamless integration of augmented reality in enhancing patient care efficiency. This video, crafted using Photoshop, After Effects, and Premiere, serves as a compelling demonstration of the project’s potential impact.
The Results
EMR access by ER physicians decreased by 27%
Patient quality care and satisfaction improved by 22%
Overall physician efficiency increased by 15%
Real-time notifications reduced EMR logins by 8%