A provider-facing integrated healthcare platform

iCare is a provider-facing integrated healthcare platform for clinics treating Substance Use Disorder (SUD) and related conditions, including mental health and sexual health. It streamlines communication between clinics, creating a more comprehensive healthcare experience for both patients and providers.

Kasey Claborn, PhD, an Assistant Professor in the Dell Medical School Department of Psychiatry, is the founder of iCare. I worked on iCare during my time as a Graduate Assistant in the Healthcare Experience Lab, a collaboration between the School of Information and the Medical School. It is currently in development with an expected May 2019 launch. 

The pilot project secured a $2 million Texas Target Opioid Response Grant from Texas Health and Human Services. The grant expands access to treatment, prevention, early intervention, and long-term recovery for at-risk populations. The money will be used for further development.

TEAM

Kasey Claborn, PhD - Project Lead

Eric Nordquist - Product Manager

Erin Finley - Product Designer

Diana Mendoza - Product Designer

Sara Merrifield - Product Researcher

Daniel Kramer - Logo Designer

CLIENT

Dell Medical School

DURATION

August 2018 - May 2019

Substance Use Disorder (SUD) is a chronic condition that requires the continual coordinated care of multiple providers. However, the United States has traditionally treated SUD as an acute condition rather than as a chronic condition, which is unrealistic and often leads to relapse. Moreover, SUD and related health conditions, like mental health and sexual health, are treated separately. Providers do not communicate, forcing patients to navigate the healthcare system on their own.

SUD should be treated as a chronic condition with an Integrated Care Model. Providers should communicate with each other to determine optimal treatment plans, and patients should stay in the healthcare system to ensure sustainable recovery. This ideal system may not be possible in the physical world, but it is possible in the digital world. iCare virtually houses a team of providers under one roof.

Our team was given an existing pilot product that had been rejected by users because it offered a poor experience. Our job was to evaluate the existing product, then create and test a product with similar features but a better user experience. My role was highly iterative ideating and rapid prototyping of the product and the design system to get the pilot product in a good place before development.

The information architecture evolved throughout the design and evaluation process. This is the current site map, with My Portal (provider-centric), Patient List (patient-centric) and Resources (provider- and patient-centric) as the global navigation items.

Diana was the lead product designer for the low fidelity prototype, and I jumped in as her partner to help conduct an expert review and transition to the medium fidelity prototype. The prototype had the basic functionality in place, but benefited from some restructuring. 

We worked through the primary user flows in the low-fidelity prototype individually and with the product team in order to identify system and usability issues. We presented our findings to Kasey and Avani. Selected examples are below.

We reverted to pen and paper before implementing any design changes into the medium fidelity prototype. This strategy helped us iteratively identify problems and potential solutions quickly and efficiently. We implemented our decisions digitally before conducting the next round of usability tests.

We implemented a new global navigation and sub-navigation system. We also redesigned the provider portal to only include the most pertinent information, including 1) appointments, 2) referrals, and 3) notifications.

We applied the same sub-navigation pattern to the patient pages. We also designed a Treatment History tab, which any provider in the patient care team can refer to and add to.

We redesigned the screener tab. Providers can administer a selected lists of screeners, save screener drafts, see past screener results, and refer a patient based on a screener result.

Sara and Eric conducted in-person usability tests with 4 participants (2 physicians and 2 social workers) at 4 clinics in Austin. The team captured perceived interest before and after each usability test on a 5 point Likert Scale. Perceived interest either increased to 5 or remained at 5, showing that the prototype exceeded and/or met expectations.

Each participant was asked to complete 2 tasks while talking aloud. They rated their task-level satisfaction on a 5 point Likert scale after each scenario. Task-level satisfaction was an average of 4.75 for both tasks, showing that the participants thought the prototype was easy to use.

The research team presented their findings to the design team and everyone collaborated on changes to make for the high-fidelity prototype. Examples of changes made are below.

After collaborating with the research team, Diana and I implemented the design changes into the high-fidelity prototype. The videos and images below show the 3 primary functions of iCare: 1) Treatment Plans, 2) Screeners, and 3) Referrals. I took the lead on the Treatment Plan and Screener user flows, and Diana took the lead on the Referral and Patient Information user flows.

Every provider on the patient Care Team can add a treatment plan, diagnoses, medications, and events. This allows all providers to see long-term progress and identify overall trends.

Administer a selected list of screeners.

iCare encourages conducting screeners routinely to assess current health and keep track of overall progress and goals. Administering screeners digitally is more effective and efficient than manually.

View overall screener history.

Comprehensive screener results can be viewed by the entire care team for a more holistic healthcare approach. Results can be analyzed individually or comparatively to detect trends in overall patient health.

Providers have the option to refer patients based on any screener result. iCare will recommend referrals when a screener result is within a specific range. Once the referral is processed, the new provider will be added to the patient Care Team.

Before implementing the feedback from the usability tests into the high fidelity prototype, we created an extensive Sketch design system. This was my first time making a design system, so I researched atomic design and based it largely off of those principles. Diana and I added to the design system throughout the development process, and it made our work flow much more streamlined.

Kasey and Avani hired a creative development agency, Devbot, to finish off the pilot product. We coordinated with the development team in Zeplin and met with them weekly, alternating between a conference call and an in-person meeting. Diana and I continued refining the high-fidelity prototype in a series of two-week design sprints. There were some essential user flows that we had not yet created (e.g. logging in, adding a patient, administrative screens, etc.). There were also multiple design changes throughout the development process as we experienced time, budget, and technical feasibility issues.

An example of our Zeplin dashboard

iCare is currently being tested at the Medical School and in clinics around Austin, with the goal of receiving feedback, gauging interest, and gaining traction. The $2 million grant the pilot product secured will be used for another round of research, design, and development.

This project helped me grow as a designer and as a teammate. Having the opportunity to work on a real-world project from low-fidelity through development during my graduate degree was invaluable. iCare allowed me to apply my education in a professional setting, reinforced my coursework, and enhanced my skill set.

• We worked very closely with the project owner. Design decisions changed a lot, and Diana and I learned to start documenting them (what did not work, why we changed what we did, etc.). Keeping a detailed record streamlined the design process and helped us avoid making the same mistake twice.
• Substance Use Disorder - and everything that comes with it - was something I knew nothing about before this project. I learned how to immerse myself in a new topic by asking the right questions, internalizing the answers, and doing my own research.