Refining Health Care UX With Data

There’s little question as to what a healthcare organization needs to serve its user in the digital environment – information, trust, intelligence, transparency and speed – to name a few. Creating the pathway to deliver the optimal experience requires the careful and meaningful integration of design and data to produce a usable platform for both providers and consumers.

Like most regulated industries, the healthcare digital landscape can always be improved. Advancements are constantly being made and many websites are operating on dated platforms, unable to serve their user’s full range of needs, or even worse – platforms may not be used to their potential. Organizations, it seems, have made sizable investments in electronic health care record (EHR) and health IT (HIT) systems; however, 75% are underutilizing the tools because of time commitment or the costs involved.

Data as a Gamechanger

Particularly in health care, usability must be at the forefront of what drives the experience for both patient and provider. The information must be up to date, if not in real time, and highly accessible but discreet. Finding the balance requires the industry to work together to constantly refine best practices and specialists working with vendors and providers to improve communication.

By creating pathways to define the right data, clinicians can better become a part of an intuitive system rather than seeing it as a hindrance. Systems that work optimally for user experience can allow providers to actually rely on the data to heighten the outcome for each patient. Whether it be speed or accuracy, access to the right data can change the game.

Integrating Data Into Daily Rounds

The day-to-day of any worker in health care varies – from face-to-face with patients to office hours where data entry and research are the primary focus. For all tasks, data capture should be integrated every step of the way. By presenting the data and making it easy and intuitive to capture and utilize, the value of surrounding analytics can be proved, and clinicians will come to rely on their systems and not the other way around.

Providers and patients need to understand how critical the data is and how it contributes to the health of patients and outcomes. This can help to heighten the quality of information and the willingness to complete the tasks needed to capture the data.

Accessibility and User Experience

Ease of use is the main goal in making relevant data available to the healthcare industry. Through the redesign and optimization of interfaces, both clinicians, providers and patients can access consistent and user-centered systems that are cohesive in design. During a busy day or time of stress, health should be the first priority, not having to navigate through a complicated process to provide or acquire important information.

Data has the capacity to change the landscape of health care, but it must be handled carefully. Ensuring that the right data is being directed toward the right user is just a starting point. Presenting the data in the most intuitive way can begin the shift toward the ideal system.