The need for UX in Healthcare & Precision Medicine

Water Cooler
#1

The healthcare industry, continually develops innovative ways to collect, combine, and mine health data. However, a patient’s needs can quite easily be missed while we drown in a sea of information. Better information design and user experience are key to developing systems that facilitate informed decision-making in healthcare.

I wrote a LinkedIn post about the role of UX in precision medicine. If you’re interested in healthcare or healthcare IT it’s worth a look. Cheers everyone, let me know what you think!

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#2

It strikes me that the healthcare industry, like quite a few other agencies that deal with massive amounts of sensitive data collection such as banks and government agencies, suffer from a lack of agility when it comes to adopting new forms of technology to deal with the data they collect due to the red tape surrounding how that data is collected and stored. I like the idea of precision medicine, but the process seems likely to be hampered by the cumbersome process of deciding how that data is stored and shared. Do you think this could be a inhibiting factor in adopting this new tech?

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#3

It’s a very interesting piece. I trained as Licensed Practical Nurse in the early 2000’s. I could certain see how data sensitive could be an issue. Also, I would imagine if it’s government funded projects likely users interfaces might be one the last considerations for funding. Not having done any research on the topic, I don’t know for sure. Where I am from, we have seen a great deal of cutbacks to both positions and funding to healthcare. I’ve noticed that any time I been to a health care facility the interfaces to be very old and cumbersome. Yes, I do think the healthcare industry could benefit better information design and UX.

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#4

Excellent comment, I do think it’s an inhibiting factor. However, the concept of translational medicine, FHIR as an open healthcare data standard, and moves from the government are moving the dial toward change.

I think a bigger issue is UX in healthcare settings for this type of technology and knowledge. A lot of physicians don’t understand precision medicine, molecular profiling, or clinical trials (especially those studies with molecularly based inclusion/exclusion criteria). I think designing for patients and physicians to make actionable, and insightful systems with this data will be a bigger challenge going forward.

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