Project Overview

The Sibley Innovation Hub is a healthcare innovation service design and consultancy team embedded in the Sibley Memorial Hospital, as part of the Johns Hopkins medical system. One of the Hub projects I was given to lead was a design sprint collaboration coming from the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center care team and nurse leaders. The nurse leaders noted, specifically, that new cancer patients are especially confused with a whirlwind of information and new faces, and lonely during the down times of receiving medicine. As such, the project began with asking the questions:

“How do we help new Cancer Center patients connect with their care team and keep track of them?”

“What can we do to lighten this learning process and possibly make it more delightful?”

"How might we improve the overall patient experience in the Cancer Center, especially during times of intense loneliness?”​​​​​​​

Solution

The Physical Prototype - a foldable brochure with baseball cards of a cancer patient's care team. Each card details factual information, such as age, job title, and years in the current position, while the reverse side communicates more 'fun facts' (shown): where the care team member would like to travel to, for instance, or the pet that they owned. The goal was to have patients be able to read these facts and connect with their care team in a meaningful positive, and much faster way than if they didn't have access to this type of information. With these prototypes, we also hoped to decrease the feelings of loneliness during the isolated chemo treatments, and give patients a baseline form of easy entertainment.

Process

I began by creating and iterating on one of the leading concepts after discussions with my manager, which was a brochure-type infographic that was to have 'baseball card'-like pieces of paper nestled within. The idea was to have each card display both professional and fun facts of an individual staff member at the infusion center. I started with a basic paper prototype like this one (because paper is the best way to start out):

The designs were quickly pushed to a digital format in order to get the project to a higher level of fidelity. In this way, patients wouldn't have to use too much of their imagination to see the eventual product as much as hold a working, viable prototype.

I also frequently ran over to the Cancer Center for the 'baseball cards', where I was able to interview staff members for both official and fun facts, and snap some photos. I also made some goofy props, like moustaches on popsicle sticks and foamcore signs. something not quite in my wheelhouse, but necessary (and enjoyable)!

All of the nurses and team leaders were incredibly gracious with the photos and interviews, and as a result the process to digitize the baseball card design went very smoothly.

After a few iterations, the designs were at a level of consistency where my manager and I felt comfortable bringing them into the real world. Within a few days, I printed, cut, taped, and folded 10 brochures outfitted each with 10 baseball cards.  Armed with these rough-and-ready prototypes, we were ready to bring them to actual patients in the hospital.

Over the course of several weeks, I periodically made the trip to the Cancer Center with a couple of these prototypes to conduct evaluative interviews with a few patients at a time. I introduced myself, the project, and a single brochure (with 10 baseball cards) to a specific patient, and asked if they'd like to keep it and look at it for some time.  If they said yes, I returned a couple hours later to assess their (hopefully) unfiltered thoughts. During the interviews, I was able to hear things like:

“This brings a human touch to my visit”.

“If I were a new patient, this would definitely help me spark conversations".

“These cards would help make my time here less terrifying”.

Once or twice I received some strong negative feedback, such as when one patient handed back the brochure immediately because the baseball cards "kept flying out".  Feedback like this was always warmly welcomed because it tended to be excellent with informing the next round of prototyping, showing us exactly what we needed to fix (and what was important to fix first).​​​​​​​

Reflection

The next steps of this project are currently ongoing. Since the results of the interviews strongly indicated that the product adds value and enriches patients' lives, the project has been tapped to be potentially expanded hospital-wide.

Although my internship has since concluded, the team is in contact with a printing company in order to assess the designs as a professionally-made product that is potentially scalable and reproducible with an awareness of cost.