Self-reflection: User Research in Healthcare
Working in healthcare had always been desirable to me. It’s essential, ubiquitous, and impactful while at the same time, it seems massive and stubborn to change.
After two years of working as a user researcher in a major healthcare company, the industry no longer feels that intimidating. Despite unique difficulties due to the layers of red tape and often restricting data privacy concerns, my passion for the healthcare industry lives on.
It’s like a relationship, you get frustrated and even a little angry from time to time, but at the end of the day, the attraction still exists because the experience is meaningful and rewarding.
Opportunities and Challenges
What you can expect for doing user research in healthcare
You get to work on a variety or topics.
2. You get to work with a variety of audiences
3. You get to use a variety of methods
4. You will need to learn some medical terminologies
Setting up scenarios and tasks for user testing (e.g., common allergies for medications)
Familiarizing yourself with topic-specific contexts for user interviews (e.g., differences between a psychologist and psychiatric in mental health related conversations)
Taking industry regulations into consideration when proposing design/product solutions (e.g., the highly monitored process for ordering controlled substance)
Being prepared for potential questions from users interviews (e.g. What is formulary?)
But don’t worry, you learn these along the way!
5. You will work with doctors
Doctors are busy, but they will make time to help you.
Doctors are smart and knowledgable, about human body, but they might have no idea how product development works.
Doctors need your help as well.
6. PHI, PHI, PHI
Protecting patients’ health information and following compliances is first of the first in every work we do.
It affects how do we recruit, how do we work with vendors, how do we store and handle the data.
Trends and Topics
If I get to further user research in healthcare…
Mental Health: preventative mental health approach (meditation apps), design for cognitive disabilities, limited society resources vs. various personal needs.
Care Options: How to educate users on the growing options for care? How to assist users choosing the most fitting care option? How to optimize the user experience tele-medicine contextually?
Transitional Key Events: How to prepare teens a parents before parents lose part or entire access to their children’s health info?
Data Integration: So many gadgets, so much data, users ask for more personalized care. How to present the data and recommendations contextually without being intrusive?
“I spent a lot of time here (at lab results) because I found the results really fascinating. I copy paste the results to 23andMe. Their site gives you more customized analysis based on your genetics.””