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A virtual clinic for prostate cancer survivors
HHF collaborated with eHealth Innovation to provide prostate cancer patients with virtual follow-up visits from the comfort of their homes. This program helps survivors to spend less time worrying about their cancer and more time focusing on what matters most to them.
Client
Trillium Health Partners
Niagara Health System
Princess Margaret Hospital
In Collaboration With
The Centre for Digital Therapeutics at UHN
Services
Ethnographic Research, Service Design, UX/UI Design
Challenge
The feeling of relief that comes with completing cancer treatment is not without anxiety that cancer cells may have been left behind, or that radiation treatments could lead to secondary cancers. When monitoring for these recurrent cancers, patients travel long distances for tests and appointments, wait in crowded clinics, and receive results that are hard to understand. All of that effort then culminates in a visit with their doctor that often lasts only a few minutes. In partnership with eHealth Innovation, we sought to design a service that made this follow-up care virtual, allowing patients the convenience and comfort of care close to home.
Process
Discovery
We designed Ned as a service for both patients and clinicians that would be supported by a cross-platform application. Through immersion into oncology clinics and collaboration with patient and clinician partners, we uncovered important learnings to inform our designs. We captured these insights in the form of experience maps of the cancer care journey and clinic service blueprints.
What we discovered
Patients would only be motivated to complete symptoms surveys and engage with the program long-term if they received feedback and confirmation that their doctors reviewed them.
To ensure surveys would be answered fully and honestly, we would need to instill trust in patients that sensitive information would be kept confidential.
Many patients find their doctor’s clinical note confusing. We would need to use clear, simple, patient-centred language that is accessible to multiple reading levels and for those who may not be fluent in English.
Patients were uneasy about seeing their results before their doctor, which often resulted in them completing their labs at the last minute. They would need gentle nudges and the option to hide results until the doctor reviews them.
designing and refining
We used sprints to design new features for patient and clinician interfaces and tested them with cancer survivors and oncologists. Using clickable high-fidelity prototypes ensured that our tests would invoke relevant and helpful feedback. Apart from improvements to the user interface, our tests also helped us to identify what was most important to patients and clinicians.
Outcomes
The first iteration of Ned has been implemented at 5 health centres across Ontario. In early 2021, we will begin rolling out the latest version, the Ned Virtual Clinic. The success of the program has led to grant support from the Government of Canada, Canadian Cancer Society, and the Canadian Institute for Health Research. There are plans to expand Ned’s features to include tracking of patient progress using an alerting algorithm, health coaching, and social and psychological supports, as well as to develop the service for the follow-up treatment of other forms of cancer.