Case Study
Video consultation service for primary health care
Working with the NHS to provide video consultation appointments for primary care patients via an app.
Overview
The way primary care patients access their appointments has never been more important.
NHS Birmingham & Solihull CCG understood this and required a video consultation app as a companion to their existing health care application.
As well as outlining the requirements for the patients needs, it was important for us to support the clinicians in their facilitation of the service inline with their existing service model.
Challenge
How might we provide patients with the means to speak to clinicians via a video call to discuss health care concerns?
Considerations
The product will initially serve as a companion app to the existing health care app that is in place.
The app will be adopted by a broad user base so initial personas will need to be outlined.
The solution needs to be simple as not to add more complexity to the existing service model.
Research
With a wide array of unknowns we proceeded to understand the needs and pain points that both patients and clinicians felt with the current appointment service to help us identify key user cohorts that the project would target initially.
User Research
As part of our user research, we spoke to both existing patients and clinicians to gauge perceptions of video consultations and identify key use cases.
Insight
Patients that have a busy lifestyle would be more inclined to use video consultations.
Patients that have ongoing physical health care needs likely to prefer video consultations.
Some patients may be hesitant to use video consulations if the process is too complicated.
Personas
Having identified specific patient cohorts that the application would benefit, we outlined 3 personas as a reference point for key decisions throughout the project.
Customer Journey Mapping
To help us to empathise with the patients further, we outlined customer journey maps to identify key touchpoints, platform crossovers and highlight any friction in the process.
Outline
Having delved into the needs of the user and gained the insight required to build upon we moved into outlining key flows for how the product could be presented to the user.
User Flows
Outlining the interactions between key stages in the patients journey; from discovery to booking and facilitation; enabled us to gain a clearer picture of what our solutions could look like.
It was important to ensure that we made all interactions as simple as possible in line with the insight gained from speaking to patients.
PatientPack Video - Appointment cancellation flow. One of many user flows outlined during this stage.
Wireframes
Building upon the outlined user flows, we wireframed all the key stages and annotated the interactions between each to playback to the rest of the team.
Wireframe sketches for the app onboarding flow
Wireframe sketches for the appointment cancellation flow
PatientPack Video wireframes
Outcome
With the outline of the solution now defined, with key flows agreed, we moved the project into the visualisation stage to bring it to life.
UI / Visuals
Having the foundations of the wireframes in place, we embarked on giving the product its look and feel.
We wanted to ensure that the product embodied a health care tone throughout to help build trust with the patients while focusing on simplicity.
Prototype
Onboarding stage of prototype
Appointment cancellation stage of prototype
Summary
The project overall was a success. Having initial ran user testing with patients in a controlled environment, both patients and clinicians provided very positive feedback.
This feedback provided the client with validation that the solution would provide patients with an alternative route to their health care. The project has now moved to the next phase in which a pilot will be conducted with a larger cohort of patients and clinicians.
