Design with Care for November 2024
A monthly newsletter for healthcare experience designers.
What’s Happening in Healthcare UX
Reader’s note: scholarly research summaries may be written with the assistance of AI.
Articles
HEART in Healthcare: Adapting UX Metrics for Medical Interfaces
Interesting approach of looking at each principle in the HEART framework to see if it can or should be applied differently in healthcare. For example, in healthcare apps, the focus shifts from maximizing user engagement to promoting meaningful interactions that drive better health outcomes. Instead of keeping users glued to the app, the goal is to encourage actions that positively impact their well-being, ensuring that every interaction serves a purpose in improving health rather than wasting time.
Balancing High-Tech and High-Touch in Healthcare UX
This reminds me of the principle "Automate Routine Tasks - Automate routine tasks to focus on meaningful interactions, improving efficiency and reducing costs." Or as another designer put it, "Automate the mundane so people can focus on the humane."
Design for Doctors: Legal and Usability Issues in Medical Software
Barbara Bocheńczak emphasizes the importance of addressing both legal compliance and user experience in healthcare software development. The article outlines key legal considerations, such as adhering to country-specific regulations, ensuring data security, and maintaining patient confidentiality.
How I Transformed a Healthcare SaaS Product: A UX Journey
Gregory Cullen reflects on his experience revamping the user experience of a healthcare SaaS product. He emphasizes the importance of understanding user pain points, conducting extensive user research, and collaborating closely with stakeholders and cross-functional teams. The overhaul led to improved product adoption, increased user satisfaction, and streamlined workflows. Gregory also highlights the challenges of balancing business goals with user needs and navigating complex regulatory requirements in the healthcare sector.
From Entrepreneurship to Healthcare UX: Lessons Learned Along the Way
Aman Jha shares his personal experience shifting from running a startup to designing for a healthcare company. Interesting perspective, although I think there’s another perspective when designing for a healthcare startup (sounds like he shifted to a mature company).
Bridging the Digital-Physical Divide in Medical Device Development
Notes from a panel at MD&M on bridging the gap between digital and physical design in medical devices. It’s such a crucial part of healthcare UX—making sure the software and hardware work together seamlessly. Special attention is paid to early collaboration and testing in real-world conditions.
News and Press Releases
PharmaHF
“Welcome to Pharma Human Factors, where a group of dedicated human factors experts explore the intersection of design, usability, and safety within the pharmaceutical industry. Our blog is a collective effort by professionals passionate about improving how people interact with pharmaceutical products, medical devices, and combination products.”
6 ways Johnson & Johnson is using AI to help advance healthcare
“Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing healthcare—from improving surgical training and procedures to equipping healthcare providers with insights and personalizing care for patients around the world. See how the company is harnessing its extraordinary power.”
Fujitsu and Teikyo University begin joint research on UX platform for promotion of lifestyle improvement using XR, spatial computing, and generative AI
"Fujitsu and the Okinaga Research Institute at Teikyo University announced that, as of today, they will begin a full-scale joint research project for the development of a user experience (UX) platform. This platform will help to improve health consciousness and healthcare literacy by increasing patients’ understanding of their internal condition through the use of digital technology, such as extended reality (XR) and spatial computing (1)."
Health icons
“Big update to Healthicons.org! We now support smaller icons on a 24px grid that more closely match Material icons and other popular open source icons like Feather and Remix. We need more volunteers to create most/all icons in smaller sizes if you want to help!”
Inside the Audio Lab: How Apple developed the world’s first end‑to‑end hearing health experience
“Apple’s state-of-the-art Audio Lab in Cupertino, California, supports the innovative work of its acoustic engineers. They use the lab to conduct user studies in various listening rooms and test new features in its anechoic chambers, which completely absorb reflective sounds and isolate external noise.”
Samsung’s New Health Software Development Kit Suite Powers Advancements in Healthcare Innovation
“Upgrades provide tailored support based on the priorities of healthcare industry partners, offering greater flexibility to pioneer innovative solutions”
Samsung Health App Update Makes Accessing Health Records, Managing Medications and Food Tracking Easier
“Samsung is committed to empowering users’ health routines with a seamlessly connected ecosystem of personalized wellness experiences. Samsung Health makes this possible by bringing together fragmented health data into a consolidated platform, enabling users to easily monitor their wellbeing.”
Audio and Video
Breaking into healthcare industry
Designer Mary Borysova hosts an event for “doctors, designers, and researchers interested in healthtech” featuring designers currently working in the field.
Designing for the humans in healthcare with Liz Spangenberg Ph.D
“Join Liz Spangenberg, Ph. D., as she explores the profound impact of human-centred design in healthcare. Learn how prioritising the human element revolutionises solutions with a real-world example showcasing effectiveness. Explore a groundbreaking study in a South African public hospital that reveals how empathetic understanding can transform a radiology environment.“
Anxiety RX (Emotional Design in Healthcare)
Deepshika Sakthivel from UX India 2024.
Scholarly Research
Influence of believed AI involvement on the perception of digital medical advice
Generative AI in medicine offers diagnostic and efficiency benefits but raises concerns about accuracy, equity, and ethics. Collaboration among clinicians, developers, and policymakers is crucial for its responsible integration into healthcare.
Usability Assessment of OpenEMR: Enhancing Healthcare Interactions
This study explores the usability challenges of OpenEMR, a widely-used open-source electronic medical record system, focusing on its interaction design and workflow efficiency. Researchers identified critical usability issues, emphasizing the need for user-centered design to enhance healthcare interactions and improve adoption by clinicians.
Evaluating Privacy Measures in Healthcare Apps Predominantly Used by Older Adults
A privacy risk assessment of 28 healthcare apps designed for older adults revealed significant gaps in compliance with privacy standards, with only 25% mentioning HIPAA and 18% mentioning GDPR, raising concerns about privacy protections and data breaches.
User Experience (UX) Design in Medical Products: Theoretical Foundations and Development Best Practices
This paper emphasizes the critical role of UX design in developing intuitive medical products that improve usability, safety, and patient outcomes while meeting regulatory requirements. A key takeaway: iterative usability testing is vital to identify and address user pain points, ensuring both compliance and a seamless user experience.
Education
Design Control for Medical Devices at UC San Diego
“Developing a new medical device for commercialization is a complex process. The FDA has guidelines that provide a framework for designing and manufacturing medical devices.”
Upcoming Events
Medical Devices & Patient Preference Information
Wednesday, November 20
“Join Orthogonal and the FDA for a discussion on patient preference information for your medical devices.”
In case you missed it
A case study on the design of Tebra's EHR from Jay Trainer.