Conceptual Healthcare Ecosystem
Unicare
Contribution
Solo Project
Team
Individual
Tools
Figma, Miro, Google Forms
Duration
6 Months
Overview
A conceptual healthcare platform designed to serve patients, healthcare workers, and hospital administrators through AI-driven insights, improved care navigation, and ethical data sharing.
The Problem
Canada’s healthcare system is under increasing strain:
- Overworked medical staff face burnout.
- Managers struggle with scarce resources.
- Patients endure dangerously long wait times.
This project began with a personal catalyst: my mother, an infection control nurse, retired mid-pandemic due to severe burnout. Her experience inspired me to explore how technology could reduce pressure on the system and improve care delivery.
To view my research and process in depth, please see my thesis PDF.
- Overworked medical staff face burnout.
- Managers struggle with scarce resources.
- Patients endure dangerously long wait times.
This project began with a personal catalyst: my mother, an infection control nurse, retired mid-pandemic due to severe burnout. Her experience inspired me to explore how technology could reduce pressure on the system and improve care delivery.
To view my research and process in depth, please see my thesis PDF.
Research
I began with primary research to validate my direction:
- Conducted conversations with frontline nurses and patients (formal and informal) to capture a broad perspective.
- Used qualitative forms to gauge user value.
Key finding: Across all groups, there was overwhelming agreement that both workers and the public urgently need systemic improvements.
- Conducted conversations with frontline nurses and patients (formal and informal) to capture a broad perspective.
- Used qualitative forms to gauge user value.
Key finding: Across all groups, there was overwhelming agreement that both workers and the public urgently need systemic improvements.
I supplemented this with secondary research:
- Reviewed scholarly articles, national news coverage, and healthcare discussions on Reddit.
- Identified recurring themes: worker burnout, patient confusion about care pathways, and operational inefficiencies in resource allocation.
- Reviewed scholarly articles, national news coverage, and healthcare discussions on Reddit.
- Identified recurring themes: worker burnout, patient confusion about care pathways, and operational inefficiencies in resource allocation.
I then began gathering themes & trends.
What if we fuelled health decisions with data and tech to make better decisions faster?
"I feel sick, what should I do?"
A portal that uses health data and research to give patients an easy and explainable action plan.
Lowering wait times by empowering workers and public with AI.
"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.
Reflection & Takeaways
Talking to people = 👑
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.
Bring the magician 🪄
After creating this case study, I discovered a type of usability 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.
Validate UI & brand further 🔬
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. Though this may be pragmatic, it should be investigated further.
Usefulness > shiny ideas 🤔
While exploring blockchain and tokenization for health records, I realized the need to balance innovation with usability. After speaking with users, I foresaw that despite the tech’s potential, it likely wouldn’t be adopted in this case. By prioritizing education and intuitive design, I ensured the technology was approachable and beneficial without overwhelming users.