Canada's healthcare system is free, but there's a price to be paid by hospital workers, its administration, and patients. Double hour digit wait times caused by staff shortages, burnout, lack of funding, and experience gaps point to a flawed system. The Canadian Medical Association stated the average wait time was 22 hours for a hospital bed in Ontario in November 2024.What if we fuelled health decisions using data and technology to mitigate this?
Please note:
If you're curious about my research and process in depth, please check out my thesis PDF. The solutions are below.
Lowering healthcare wait times by empowering workers and public with AI.
"I feel sick, what should I do?"
A portal that uses health data and research to give patients an easy and explainable action plan.
"Ok Doc, here's your next best move."
Like a chess computer for priorities. Nurses, doctors, and other hospital staff gain a what to do and why using AI's ability to make complex data from medical IoT, process insights, and from shared lesson learning into something easily-digestible and actionable.
A shared lesson-learning platform for hospitals and research organizations generating revenue.
Powered by de-identified patient data, hospitals can freely share insights on a deeper level between each other, especially with actions taken towards success. Furthermore, this enables them to broker de-identified data to ethically generate revenue. Research organizations can benefit heavily from this rich data, and thus the medical industry as a whole.
MY LEARNINGS
Reflection & Takeaways
Feedback and questioning are king 👑
I spent as much time as I could talking to people. From nurses, classmates, colleagues, to even talkative people sitting next to me on flights. Whether done formally through a qualitative forms or casually Discord calls, you can find value through doing this and asking the right questions.
Enter: The Magician? 🪄
I recently discovered a type of testing called "Wizard of Oz method". It works by letting someone behind the scenes work as the system you're trying to test. Though I got user feedback on prototypes, I may have gotten even deeper insights by opening this realm of possibility.
Test UI adoptability 🔬
I intentionally chose to make the healthcare worker portal use a dark mode so that the screen wouldn't light up the worker's face and make it look like they were distracted. I also chose a sharper and slightly serious and corporate look to convey a sense of trust in users using adapting UI cues from both Material and Carbon. That said, I believe there is work to be done in terms of testing regarding this.
Balancing new tech with practicality 🤔
While exploring blockchain and tokenization for securing health records, I realized there is a balance to strike. It's crucial to introduce innovative features that are not only technologically advanced but also understandable and desirable to users. By focusing on user education and intuitive design, I ensured that these advanced technologies were approachable and beneficial to everyday users, ultimately enhancing their healthcare experience without overwhelming them.