digitizing healthcare
Building a robust digital service that streamlines how patients access healthcare specialist expertise in Canada.
Timeline
2022 - Ongoing project
My role
UX research
UX/UI design
Methodology
Design thinking
User-centred design
Tools
Figma
overview
pt.Connect is patient-centred solution that aims to simplify the way primary care doctors connect their patients to specialists. I stumbled upon this problem in the course of trying to get a referral to an orthopaedic surgeon through my primary care physician. What I experienced was a fragmented system that involved a lot of manual processes; these included tons of paper, fax machines, CD plates (to move around x-ray files), and lots of phone calls to properly coordinate the process.
An October 2012 survey of physicians on the topic of referrals found that two-thirds of family physicians noted that some kind of communication problem was a main source of frustration for them; for example not being informed about: referral receipt, the patient’s appointment, a treatment plan, or that the specialist does not do the service requested. A similar proportion of specialists noted a lack of basic or supporting information (e.g., reason for referral or lab test results) as a main frustration with referral requests.
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My research showed that 1/5 Canadians have reported the negative impact of the current referral process. The inadequate process also contributes significantly to the broader issue of Canada’s long wait times for patients to see a specialist; 11 weeks on average
Long wait times have become a defining characteristic of the Canadian health care system. In 2016, the Commonwealth Fund ranked Canada last among 11 countries surveyed on wait times for specialist care. Roughly one-fifth of Canadians report being negatively affected by wait times, citing experiences of stress, anxiety, pain, lost income, delays in diagnosis and treatment, duplications of tests, and deterioration in their conditions.
In general, patients consider 3 months to be the maximum acceptable wait time for a specialist appointment.
project goal
The goal of the project is to conduct further qualitative and quantitative research to uncover the most recent data on the problem space - (as the data from the initial secondary research are dated) - with an end goal of building out an MVP that will digitize the end-to-end referral process.
outcome
This project is ongoing **
The next phase is conducting extensive usability studies with physicians and patients, iterate on the experience accordingly until there’s a PMF.