ManageHF (Heart Failure) Decision Dashboard

Manage Heart Failure: Co-Design with Care Providers

Introduction

The ManageHF Decision Dashboard, which is funded by U-M’s internal MCubed program to support interdisciplinary research, is currently in a usability testing phase prior to developing the beta version. The project goal is to provide a user-friendly interface that brings together into one visual portal all relevant data for heart failure patients, who are usually complex cases. From our research, we hypothesize that streamlining the interface will improve providers’ ability to make quick and accurate decisions and therefore improve patient care. In parallel, we are also developing and sending out a survey to different types of providers in order to collect quantitative data to compare to findings from two years of qualitative ethnographic research and provide further validity for the design decisions we have implemented in the current iteration of the interface. A particularly noteworthy milestone in our research process was conducting a participatory design charrette with multiple types of providers (cardiologists and pharmacists) who care for heart failure patients. A short paper and poster on our research approach will be published later this year in the Proceedings of the 2020 American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Symposium.

Video of Current Prototype

User Experience Research Process

Co-Design Charrette with Heart Failure Providers

During this session, the research team engaged the clinicians in brainstorming and generating paper prototypes of interface ideas using provided materials—paper, markers, and pre-printed interface kits which they could arrange and paste into different configurations to illustrate their ideal workflows within the current EHR. This process validated findings from the discovery phase, revealed new EHR pain points, and also provided some insights for the design team to consider in developing the dashboard. The participatory design session enabled users to articulate their needs and feelings visually and verbally4. The design team analyzed these inputs to better understand clinicians’ needs in context and create a user task flow.” …possibly work this sentence in too: Generative research follows and engages users in the design process, which leads to better information about their values and needs.

Co-Design Wireframes

In the co-design session with medical practitioners from Michigan Medicine, participants were able to sketch out wireframes demonstrating how they would perceive a manage heart failure platform to look. This led to insights regarding how medical professionals visually prioritize tasks and features.

Prototypes

Here are some screens from the design team’s latest iteration of the prototype. These screens have been changed to accomodate the insights generated from both usability tests and the survey results.

Usability Testing

Members of the ManageHF design team reached out to a number of health care providers who deal with heart failure patients daily to schedule usability tests with via Zoom. Participants were given control of the interactive prototype and asked to complete a series of tasks while thinking aloud. Participants were also asked questions about their opinions of the prototype, which led to helpful insights regarding out the interface could further improve to meet the users’ need.

Virtual usability test being conducted over Zoom:

Provider observations, interviews & survey

Co-design charrette with heart failure providers

Provider input through paper prototype testing

Design Research Team Members

Kelly Murdoch-Kitt: Design Team Supervisor, MHF Co-Investigator

Kelly’s work and teaching integrate visual communication, interaction, user experience, and service design with behavior change and social engagement, drawing on her professional experience as a UX strategist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her research explores intersections of virtual and physical communities, and the development of methods and tools to promote effective long-distance intercultural collaboration.

Abigail Ziemkowski: Undergraduate Research Assistant

Abby is a recent graduate of STAMPS who is passionate about UX design and language learning exchange and the intersection of the two. She is interested in the ways that design can shape and improve our experience with the world.

Flannery O’Donnell: Undergraduate Research Assistant

Flannery is a senior in the School of Information, studying UX Design. She is also pursuing the Ross Sales and Marketing Track as her sub-focus. Her passions include technology, design, mental health awareness, and human rights advocacy.

Mikayla Buford: Graduate Student Research Assistant

Mikayla is a first-year Master of Design in Integrative Design and she works on research pertaining to human-computer interaction and design.

Many people have worked on the ManageHF Decision Dashboard webtool for various durations of time. While the current team members are introduced above, this map includes the full current team as well as past team members who have worked hard to contribute to the realization of our Manage Heart Failure Decision Dashboard.