Digital Transformation of Asthma Care
Health & Wellbeing | Product Design | B2B | Healthcare Innovation
Client
Astra Zeneca
Time
6 months
Role
Lead Service Designer
Overview & Challenge
Asthma is a common condition that can be difficult to manage properly. Patients were dying because they weren't being seen by specialists quickly enough. To help standardise and digitise the assessment and care process, we needed to create a service experience that included an easy-to-use screening tool for healthcare professionals and educational resources to help patients increase their awareness and understanding of asthma.
Key Challenges
- Identifying which patients needed urgent referral for specialist care
- Standardising the comprehensive patient evaluation process
- Creating a digital tool that healthcare professionals with varying technical skills could use easily
- Designing for different healthcare scenarios and practitioner roles (pharmacists, nurses, GPs)
- Addressing the liability concerns associated with health recommendations
- Balancing clinical requirements with usability and patient experience
- Integrating the tool with existing healthcare workflows
My Approach & Contribution
Following the concept prototype created in the first phase of the project, I was brought on as a contractor to help develop a working tool for a clinical study where selected patients would test and improve the usability of the tool under controlled conditions.
What I did
1. Prioritised features for the first release to create a focused, usable product
3. Identified touchpoints, actors, and relationships in various healthcare scenarios
5. Refined the interaction and visual design of the tool
7. Built a product roadmap for the next 3 years
2. Created a decision tree that drove health outcomes based on patient assessment
4. Conducted journey mapping exercises with subject matter experts and actual users
6. Worked daily with visual and interaction designers to finalise screen details
To ensure the tool would work in real-world healthcare settings, I mapped different user scenarios. For example, a pharmacist assessing a patient might make decisions on treatment and finalise the consultation, while a non-prescribing nurse would have to consult with the GP and then hand off the patient after their assessment. These different workflows needed to be seamlessly supported by the tool.
Service blueprint maps all aspects of the HCP-Patient journey including the clinical activities, interactions, communications
Results & Impact
01
Created a specialised screening tool that standardised asthma assessment and expedited specialist referrals
03
Provided educational resources that increased patient awareness and understanding of their condition
05
Designed a tool that integrated with different healthcare professional workflows
02
Enabled healthcare professionals to make faster, more accurate care decisions
04
Developed a clear product roadmap for continuing evolution of the tool
06
Balanced clinical requirements with excellent user experience design
Key Learnings
Balance clinical precision with practical utility. In healthcare design, I'd establish clearer validation frameworks from the start for decision trees, ensuring they reflect best practices while remaining implementable in high-pressure environments.
Design for the complete relationship, not just the primary user. Future healthcare tools should more deliberately bridge provider-patient communication gaps—the most valuable solutions enhance understanding between both parties rather than optimizing for only one perspective.
Prioritize based on measurable health outcomes. I'd establish stricter value assessment criteria early in the development process, helping stakeholders distinguish between ambitious features and those delivering immediate clinical impact to accelerate meaningful adoption.
Details...
Tool logic
We designed our patient navigator with care and precision, basing its logic on input from patients during an assessment. We refined this logic with help from stakeholders and our technical team, to make sure that correct decisions were being made and that these decisions would be meaningful and actionable for patients. Our decision poster below outlines all of the components of logic that we used in this project.
Product roadmap
After consulting with the client stakeholders, our team prioritised the key features for the first release and identified what additional work would be needed for Phase 3 in order to globalise the tool. The product roadmap below outlines the features proposed for development over the next three years.
Roadmap for next, near and far horizons; with prioritised features for launching in the UK, then in multiple countries