client
University of Pennsylvania Health System & Penn HealthTech
role
client lead
digital product designer
digital product designer
Pulmonary Edema is a symptom of Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) presenting in about 80% of CHF patients where the lungs become filled with fluid. Patients report symptoms such as difficulty breathing, shortness of breath and a feeling of drowning. There is high cost ($33B/yr.) and complexity (28% readmission rate) associated with this disease. The project team consisted of a researcher, two bioengineers, a business strategist and myself.
Patients often do not report to a care center until disease has progressed and hospitalization is required resulting from a lack of adherence to medication and inability to monitor patients real time. Additionally, there are no accurate or specific at-home monitoring solutions for Pulmonary Edema on the market.
Ultra@Home is a digital and physical product that provides a standardized and accurate at-home monitoring system for detecting fluid in the lungs of patients with pulmonary edema. Ultimately, improving the quality of life of patients, reduces hospital readmission rates and decreases overall cost of care.
We spoke to surgeons, physicians and sonographers spanning the University of Pennsylvania Health system to understand the root cause of the high readmission rates and lower quality of life for patients with pulmonary edema.
In parallel with qualitative interviews, our team conducted qualitative research through the review of medical journal publications and pulmonary edema monitoring clinical studies.
There is high cost and complexity associated with the disease. Patients often do not report to a care center until disease has progressed and hospitalization is required.
• Heart failure (HF)costs $33 billion annually, with 80% of HF patients diagnosed with Pulmonary Edema
• Costs $34,000 per hospitalization
• Readmission rate for pulmonary edema is 29%
A need for a standardized and specific at-home monitoring system for pulmonary edema in heart failure patients, for the early detection of fluid build-up to reduce cost of care and readmission rates, and increase quality of heart failure patient experiences.
Our team ideated different solutions to solve for our need statement across modalities, technologies and intervention methods.
We then leveraged a concept decision matrix that incorporated weighted design criteria to ultimately choose the at-home portable ultrasound digital and physical solution to continue with.
Concept Decision Matrix
With a solution chosen and our qualitative research top of mind, I began creating low-fidelity wireframes to understand the layout and feature placement. This rough design enabled me to get my ideas on a screen and ultimately test them with a working prototype in front of patients and physicians.
Physicians and patients followed specific tasks with accompanying targeted question to help identify opportunities for improvement with both the digital and physical products.
Ultra@Home is a digital and physical product that provides a standardized and accurate at-home monitoring system for detecting fluid in the lungs of patients with pulmonary edema across different patient populations. Ultimately, improving the quality of life of patients, reducing hospital readmission rates and decreasing overall cost of care.
Patients have a lack of understanding of key questions about their condition which leads to non-adherence to medicine regimes and poor disease control. The onboarding flow provides details regarding what to expect during the care process.
Ultra@Home provides a connection between the Dr., the reality of medication adherence/effectiveness and the patients health. This enables the physician to accurately assess the patient and course correct if needed before hospital readmission.
Due to the sensitive nature of the process, connection with a healthcare provider gives the patient a vital sense of security and safety. A scan log provides patients with a sense of control over their treatment through transparent information regarding their scans.
Ultra@Home employs an accessible design language that uses large visuals accompanied by informative text, easy to understand language and larger text with high contrast.
Ultra@Home has a market potential of reaching 4.7 million patients. Additionally, the total US Market size for pulmonary edema treatment is ~$10B and has an accompanying growth market growth rate of 3.06%, presenting a unique opportunity for successful market penetration in an unsaturated market.
