ChemoPals

Recommendation (2)

I worked on a solution to make the chemotherapy process more transparent and also a solution to inform patients of their status via SMS.

The SMS system idea was meant to provide patients a number they could text and interact with. Patients could receive updates regarding their status when they were getting curious or impatient.

Most patients were seniors who did not have smartphones. Using an SMS system bypasses this obstacle. Also, patients take the initiative to receive updates. This puts the power in their hands and gives them an internal locus of control; they won't have to wait for the nurses to inform them, and they won't feel as powerless.

Synthesizing Data

Our team wanted to observe the workflow of the nurses and patients with our own eyes to verify what the problem truly was. We interviewed people involved with the chemotherapy process and took notes.

With our data that was gathered, we put them together and collectively decided what the main pain points were, and how to focus coming up with solutions for them.

Gathering Observations

We started by putting together bits of info to better understand the situation and who was directly involved or affected by the problems of chemotherapy.

With what we gathered, it was pretty apparent what we thought the major problems were, so we decided to keep those in mind because those could turn out to be important pieces of the puzzle.

I worked with a team as a Designer I for the UX Design Clinic from University of Michigan's School of Information. My team worked with a client with an idea called Chemopals that was hoping to target some of the problems that patients faced when waiting for chemotherapy treatment at the university's Cancer Center.

I helped gather data from observations and interviews, created a few personas, and also designed one possible solution to pitch to the clients at the end of the semester.

The Given Problems

Long wait times for patients. Patients had to wait for extended periods of times that could vary from one hour to three hours. We were tasked to look into this to see if we could alleviate some of the stress.

Patients cannot leave the waiting room. Patients were not recommended to leave the waiting area in case there was a spot available for them. Thus, most were stuck waiting for someone to fetch them without any notice, making this process unpredictable.

Personas

I helped create three personas of some of the individuals involved in the chemotherapy process.

We wanted to understand their take on the issues, what their goals were, and how their daily experience was to come up with a solution that did not worsen their burdens.

Desk Nurse

Medical Assistant

Patient

Key Discoveries

Inform patients of their status. A common complaint was that patients were not informed of any delays or problems that arose, and constantly bothered the desk nurse for more information that they did not have. Our team believed if the patients were given updates, they would not be as frustrated.

Make process transparent. One reason why the patients were easily frustrated was that they did not know what was going on behind the scenes. If they better understood the complexities of the chemotherapy process, they may not be so quick to blame the Cancer Center for ignoring them.

Improve communication between stations. Nurses were not using the same method of communication for each station, which could lead to important requests or followups ignored. This could lead to delays, especially when an important person could not be reached.

Ideation Workshop

The team invited the client for a workshop where we went crazy and brainstormed tons of ideas (realistic or not) that could potentially solve the three discoveries we found.

This was a lot of fun, and we ended by voting for our favorite ideas. The ones with the most votes were the solutions that are team explored with more depth.

This is an infographic that explains the chemotherapy process step-by-step. Patients would receive explanations about what happened "behind the curtains."

PearsonLloyd's healthcare posters inspired this solution, where patients exposed to information about the various processes were less prone to violent outbreaks. We hoped this would mitigate the patients' stress.