A Call for Change: Human-Centered Approach for a Better Healthcare System

BOSTON, Feb. 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Story+Structure, specialists in human-centered design, has a challenge for hospitals, group practices and other healthcare providers: when it comes to choosing system-wide technology, put patients, physicians and nurses first.

Current trends in healthcare – the move to compensation based on outcomes, Electronic Health Records (EHR), telemedicine, patient self-reporting/tracking – are intended to motivate patients to play a larger part in their healthcare, in theory through fluid communication with their healthcare providers. However, most technologies available to achieve this goal lack interconnectivity, and most importantly do not employ a human-centered approach in the design.

"Today, institutions are asking how they can move patients toward "health care literacy," notes Shaun Gummere, Chief Design Officer, Story+Structure. "Perhaps the question should be flipped, and ask how the systems and processes in place allow this to naturally emerge. We think human-centered design offers the necessary power to make this kind of dramatic shift."

Under the Affordable Care Act, hospitals are encouraged by the federal government to implement EHR systems, to make their operations more efficient. In addition, EHRs are part of a system-wide push to improve patients' health. This begs the question – how do we achieve a world where patients have access to their own medical records, recognizing the need for privacy protection and ease of use? Moreover, how can healthcare providers differentiate themselves – attracting patients and retaining top physicians and nurses – with an EHR system that takes into account provider preferences and patient needs?

Mr. Gummere believes that in order for healthcare technology solutions such as EHR to be used often and successfully by both patients and providers, they must be rooted in empathy and compassion for the people who will be using them. The design must be transformed from technology-focused to human-centered. Human-centered design, which makes technology intuitive and easy to use, aligns the interaction among people, processes, and systems to build and sustain key relationships. 

A human-centered and -designed EHR presents providers with an opportunity to replicate the level of patient adherence found in a facility setting (where a doctor prescribes medication, a nurse administers it to a patient and then ensures that it is taken), in the home environment (where, for example, a patient may choose not complete a full course of antibiotics). For example, hospitals are a series of practices, divided into departments. Implementation of a facility-wide EHR is a promise to bring all the practices together into a single record; all the assessments and recommendations from departments that don't always have regular communication with one another, brought together in a single resource. EHR has the opportunity to become a lynchpin for each patient and their healthcare team to speak the same language.

The challenge – to date, the majority of EHR implementations have been institution-focused, overly complicated, not taking into account the perspective of the physicians much less the patients. Doctors and nurses want to practice medicine and help patients acquire and maintain optimum health. Yet, according to a recent study published in the International Journal of Health Services, "American doctors are drowning in paperwork." A human-centered EHR would align the real-world needs of doctors, patients, and institutions.

In many respects, these systems mirror where technology was not long ago, where "computer literacy" was a requirement to effectively use these tools. Examples of a human-centered perspective on what the essential qualities of an EHR should be, taking into account users' real needs, might include:

• instantly usable and intuitive
• speed of data entry in real-world contexts
• enabling, not distracting, from patient engagement
•  meaningful and actionable interfaces for both experts (doctors) and regular people (patients)

As demonstrated by the flaws in current EHR implementations, there are gaps to be filled in the crucial intersection of technology and human need throughout healthcare institutions. In EHR systems alone, the potential for improvement of patient adherence through access to this single point of view of their healthcare team, through a better understanding of the resulting plan of action for their health, should not be underestimated. The creation of improved patient adherence would be the equivalent of the success of a blockbuster drug. Everyone wins – healthcare institutions, healthcare providers, and patients.

For media inquiries, including scheduling interviews with Story+Structure executives, please contact Ariane Doud of Warner Communications, at [email protected]. 

About Story+Structure
Story+Structure is an innovation design firm that solves human problems. From strategy to implementation, we deliver solutions that promote meaningful engagement between people and organizations. For more information, please visit www.storyandstructure.com. 

Media Contact:
Ariane Doud
Warner Communications
(978) 283-2674 
[email protected]

SOURCE Story+Structure

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