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health literacy

1.75 million people in the United States a year are entering the medical intensive care unit (MICU) due to heart attacks. Of the current population, only  12% is health literate. 

approach

  • Research current ICU communication.
  • Familiarize myself with the anatomy and pathology of the heart. 
  • Communicate with stakeholders to find out what they want and need.
  • Design the interaction and user experience for an application that solves the communication problem.
  •  Code and build out interactive prototype through Unity 3D.
  • Usability test of real  primary users. 
 

the problem space

The medical intensive care unit (MICU) environment is stressful and often confusing. These patients rely heavily on their family members to make sound medical decisions on their behalf. In the MICU, patients’ family members report poor communication with medical staff due to a lack of common ground knowledge between the family and medical professionals.

process

A visual interactive strategy was developed that would research the needs of the primary users (physicians and clinical staff) and secondary users (the family) when communicating and educating on heart attacks.  The goal was to define the communication problem, review the stakeholder needs, develop a prototype, and conduct a usability test to validate the effectiveness of the interactive. 

defining the problem

Communication pinch points were identified through literature reviews and conducting primary user surveys. 

The initial surveys indicated that primary users were looking for an application that allowed for:

  1. Customization of patient pathology.
  2. Appropriate and clear medical language. 
  3. Review of heart function.
  4. Interactive customizable patient treatment options.
  5. A design that allowed for positive body language between primary and secondary user.

Based off of these needs acceptance criteria were organized into functions and backlogged.

Personas, sitemaps, wireframes, and ultimately, the primary prototype were created to support the users needs.  The primary usability testing of the applications first iteration is currently on going.

Usability Testing and Results

Usability results are still pending. Please return soon for updates.