Candidate Perioperative Predictor
The R&D group of Depuy Synthes, a Medical Device member of Johnson &Johnson's family of companies, came to IDEO with a desire to improve patient outcomes by making a data-driven digital tool for orthopedic surgeons to use when evaluating candidates for orthopaedic surgery. Predicting surgery outcomes has advanced but physicians indicated they still have limitations in affecting patient adherence to care plans pre- and post-surgery, which is critical to a positive surgical outcome. This insight led to designing a digital tool that helped fill essential data gaps about a patient's life, provided communication support for expectation setting, and allowed for flexible and continuous goal setting & resetting.
Candidate was IDEO’s first project with Data Science as an integrated design discipline in the core team and scope.
Design Process
During research, one of the biggest opportunities exposed was the need to address the critical information that is often lost in translation between practitioners and patients and the lack of continued longer-term engagement outside of the physician office. Co-design sessions with surgeons helped unearth “hidden truths” about patients’ non-medical data that, if captured, could serve as inputs in predicting overall likelihood of a good surgical outcome and therefore whether someone was a suitable candidate for surgery. The team explored different approaches to collecting the hidden truths data. Then, hidden truths data was combined with electronic health record data to produce the Patient Outcome Profile Generator, which synthesized data into a relatable scorecard format that assisted surgeons in patient communication.
Identifying Great Candidates
The Patient Outcome Profile Generator is a data-driven decision-support tool that enables surgeons to have more informed, efficient perioperative patient interactions, increases visibility into critical surgical outcome indicators, and increases the likelihood of patient compliance and satisfaction.
Personal contributions: With my experience in orthopaedics administration, I collaborated with the data scientists to help them translate the findings in the data into insights that would resonate with the surgeon stakeholders. In design, I acted as the team’s pseudo-clinician for early rounds of user feedback, drawing on my knowledge of electronic medical records (EMRs) and knowing firsthand where screen, button, and alert fatigue often set in and then jeopardize engagement. The design team’s project manager was also new to the role and the healthcare industry. Coaching the project manager on stakeholder management, making decisions collaboratively, and weighing project delivery schedule tradeoffs was another part of my team role.
Design Outcomes
Pivotal to making the design resonate with the client was an analysis of the market, a business model for moving the concept forward, and a breakdown of how to address the cold start problem of designing the underlying algorithm without an existing repository of user & outcome data.
For IDEO, Project Candidate gave space for Data Scientists and Interaction Designers to work together from the start. That teaming allowed for a new kind of rapid, collaborative iteration between one discipline that tends to be “back of house” and another that is traditionally more user-facing.
Deliverables | Data-driven predictive digital tool for surgeons; design principles for algorithms; storytelling assets for internal communication; wireframes
Roles | Client leader, healthcare industry guide
Acknowledgements | Depuy Synthes, part of J&J