MedHub App Design Brief

Introduction

The healthcare system has seen a tremendous load with a large increase volume of patients to treat, changes in funding and staffing resulting in shorter office visits and an increased need for paperwork leading to higher complexity for patient’s to navigate the system. Coupling the increasing pace and complexity of the healthcare system with the physical impairments of the geriatric population often lead to inequities and mistreatment of this patient population. Issues like hearing loss, vision loss, memory impairments and mobility challenges leave these patients frustrated and fearful of not being able to independently navigate the overall cognitive and physical load required to receive quality medical care.

Design Vision

I plan to develop a mobile application that would target the geriatric population and address the difficulties that they face when navigating the healthcare system. This app would allow patients to input their medical history and medications list and have a QR Code or link that medical staff couple use to into their systems to ease lengthy onboarding, each of the patient’s practitioners would have their own tab so that they can visually keep contact/office directions/messaging organized and a transcription option that they could run during a live office visit to have a written recap that they could review after the session.

Research

• SWOT Analysis

  In running a SWOT analysis and a live patient interview, it does appear that there is value in producing an application to address this target population and this issue. There does not appear that there are any other applications with a similar target audience. Difficulty may arise when trying to gain permissions from practitioners to gather transcription during sessions and strict HIPPA laws need to be addressed to protect medical information. While there are some aspects that need further investigation, the investment in the design of this application would be beneficial to the geriatric patient population.

  
• Interview

  Interviewee: 70 y.o. woman matching perspective user in target audience

  
  1. How many practitioners are you currently seeing? 4
  2. How many patient portals do are you currently enrolled in? 2
  3. Is there anything specifically challenging about managing communication with your practitioners? Yes, there are so many forms to fill out that I get overwhelmed with what I need to do. I often do not follow through with a medical doctor, or delay seeing them because I don’t have time or energy to fill out all that they are asking me to complete. I feel that each doctor asks the same questions and ask for my lengthy medical history/medication list and expect me to recite it over and over.
  4. Do you have any difficulty navigating the drive to or finding the office once you arrive? Not normally. The only difficulty I have is when I have multiple doctors visits in a single day. Many of the office buildings look the same so remembering which suite number and which floor they are on is often overwhelming.
  5. How confident do you feel during your actual office visit? Do you typically take a family member into the treatment room? I have always written lists down to talk over with my doctor. There is a lot going on and often a lot of emotion and I forget the questions I was going to ask. I make the doctor slow down and spell out things that I don’t understand or hear correctly. I find that in the last couple of years, as my hearing has gotten worse, I do like to have a family member go in with me in case I miss something. They are not always available to go with me, so I worry that didn’t get all the information.

Design Prototype

The app has been designed and prototyped through the use of Figma. To see the interactive prototype, please follow the link below.