Protected: IoT: App that digitalizes health

The year 2021 and the accelerating Covid-19 pandemic made us realize how much the world is behind in terms of health management.

The lack of resources and mechanisms led to panic and bad moods. We no longer trust the health service.

Although the “e-health” market is currently worth over USD 600 billion,

it was only the current situation in the world that made companies and medical institutions turn their attention to the digitization of health. According to experts, this is a goldmine and a trend that will continue.

What is health digitalization about?

Health digitalization is a challenge, opportunity, and fact. 

This is a challenge because medical data is sensitive, and companies face the challenge of protecting it and ensuring the safety of their patients. Possibilities – faster patient service, cost reduction, process improvement. A fact because it surrounds us in everyday life. E-prescriptions, video meetings with doctors, and taking care of the Patient remotely by monitoring various diseases…

Pain.

What does the process look like today? A doctor asks the Patient about the pain threshold or how he feels his symptom. Today we have paper ESAS-R forms that have a table and names of symptoms on a scale of 0 to 10. It is the patient who subjectively says how much they feel. It is arduous and the patient does not always remember how he felt a few hours or days ago. In addition, the time that the doctor can devote to the patient is very short, so the interview is inaccurate and the paperwork is huge. The ineffectiveness of such activities means that doctors are not able to diagnose their patients well.

The idea

The idea is a device that the patients will carry with them and record pain with a squeeze. The tighter the grip, the worst the pain should be.

The ease of use of the device and its availability make the product suitable for a wide group of recipients, regardless of age or gender (which is especially important for patients of all clinics.

The Solution

An App that is available for all mobile devices, iPads, and desktops. The app easily monitors pain and various other symptoms.

The application allows you to connect the device, download data from it, and analyze this data.

The data is presented in time, on charts and timelines. A quick analysis of data allows users to find trends in the appearance of symptoms and their level. In addition, the user has several additional features, such as adding notes and symptoms manually, so that he treats the product as his diary.

A module for monitoring the effectiveness of drugs and daily questions is also being developed so that the doctor has full insight into the patient’s health.

My Team and Role

We were divided into several teams (including Team mobile & team web). The team included: Developers, Devops, PMs, QAs, Product owner, and me – Product Designer.

 I was responsible for the design of the application based on the research of the UX team on the client’s side.

With huge ownership on our side, we also cooperated with doctors, clinic representatives, and investors related to HealthTech.

My responsibilities included the preparation of design for all the above-mentioned platforms, along with the design system and prototypes. I have been involved in the project for 2 years, creating its look and way of operation from the very beginning.

The mobile application focused mainly on IoT device users, so I wanted to design it in such a way that connecting the device with the application and reading data was as useful and intuitive as possible.

The mobile application consists of several dozen screens, providing both types of users (doctors & patients) with full and safe access to data.

The web application is equally complex. We focused on ensuring that clinics can fully manage Patient’s cases, assigning doctors, daily questionnaires for the patient, and reading data from multiple devices. Both the patient and the clinic as well as individual medical staff have access to the application and, depending on their role, have limited access to various data.

The Problem (or better – an opportunity!)

It is an innovative medical application that has no competition in the IoT market. An innovative, modern approach makes the problems we have encountered new and unprecedented.

The mere loading of data from the device and their interpretation as well as mapping the clamps in the form of graphs has caused us many problems many times.

In addition, we knew that hugs are very personal, and each person can interpret them differently. One of the biggest problems and a breakthrough in creating the product for me was designing the calibration of the device. Being sure that the pain is mapped in the user’s grip, I could focus on better showing the data in the application.

An additional challenge was the FDA (Food and drug administration) & MDR (Product Certification).

It is an innovative medical application that has no competition in the IoT market.

An innovative, modern approach makes the problems we have raised new and unprecedented. Uploading data from the device and their interpretation (as well as mapping the squeezes) in the form of graphs has caused us many problems, many times.

In addition, we knew that squeezes are very personal, and each person can interpret them differently. One of the biggest challenges and a breakthrough in creating the product for me was designing the calibration of the device. Being sure that the pain is mapped in the patient’s grip, I could focus on better showing the data in the application.

An additional challenge was the FDA (Food and drug administration) & MDR (Product Certification) because the product needs a lot of medical certifications.

What have I learned?

I learned patience. I learned that close cooperation can create a product that helps people. With I more than ever appreciate product ownership, but is not only an opportunity but also a big responsibility.

In a startup decisions evolved suddenly and quickly, which was reflected in the flexibility in the decisions made in terms of user interface design. The multiple changes were facilitated by Scrum and design interactions.

 I appreciate the value that Scrum brings.

In addition, I learned a lot about third-party devices that need to handle many errors and various cases such as a low battery, device out of range, or no Bluetooth connection.

Also, the specificity of the product allowed me to understand that there are solutions for a very wide group of users, so the solution had to adapt to many cases and anticipate a lot.

Overall this project is very complex, and I am extremely proud, that I was a part of it.