This definition of patient experience comes from The Beryl Institute, a global community of practice and thought leader on improving the patient experience in healthcare.
In January, we offered a three-part series on the future of design for the patient experience, a topic on the minds of everyone involved in healthcare. Here, we revisit the themes of each article and invite you to read them—for the first time, or again—and consider the possilibities for emerging technologies and design.
Design for the Patient Experience
Patient experience is part of a larger ecosystem. If we desire better care, quality clinical experiences and good clinical outcomes for patients, we must contemplate designing for a complete patient experience—from process to system to built environment—that emphasizes usability, functionality, and even beauty.
The revolution in mHealth and sensor technology makes it possible to achieve greater patient engagement outside of the traditional confines of the doctor's office. The healthcare system must exploit technologies that make getting and using data more seamless with other tasks, like goal-setting, fitness-tracking, and calorie budgeting. In a similar fashion, increased transparency around cost enables better healthcare decision making.
Design for the Patient Experience: Health Axioms
Invo’s design philosophy for the patient experience is articulated in our Health Axioms, which speak to critical areas of patient engagement, adherence, and clinical design, and are meant to inspire and support a healthy lifestyle outside of the health system and doctor's office. When patients are involved in their own care, they manage conditions better and they need fewer visits to specialists and hospitals and fewer tests. Designers must strive to create simple, accessible ways for individuals to incrementally change behavior.
Design for the Patient Experience: Software in Action
New software applications address long-standing problems in American healthcare delivery from a patient perspective. These examples support building knowledge around personal health factors, pricing transparency, and clarification of the billing process.
PatientsLikeMe
A web application that enables members to share their data including condition, treatment, and symptom information, so that they can monitor their health over time and learn from each other.
hGraph
An open source software tool for visualizing a patient’s complete range of health metrics.
Change Healthcare
Platform comprising a suite of tools for educating patients around healthcare costs including prescriptions, medical procedures, and dental and vision services, with results that are based on an individual's plan, network, and location.
To learn more about Involution Studios in the healthcare world, visit our Healthcare pages.
