Fresenius
FRESENIUS
patients MANAGEMENT during their DIALYSIS treatments
Final interface of the app
Challenge
The rapid economic growth and lifestyle changes in India and China have contributed to a significant increase in chronic diseases, including diabetes and hypertension.
These conditions are major risk factors for kidney disease, leading to a high demand for dialysis (medical procedure that filters the blood when the kidneys can no longer do so effectively.).
India and China have the largest dialysis patient populations in the world (approx. 40% of the global market).
At the time, nurses relied on pen and paper to document treatments.
This manual process often led to errors, data loss, and significant time consumption.
Fresenius Medical Care aims to position itself ahead of time with its devices and modern cloud-based therapy systems to manage the treatment.
The mission: freeing time for dialysis nurses to be more available for the patient
My role
I was in charge of leading the research, shaping the user experience, creating a road map and supporting the development.
Discover
Research methods used during the project
In the first phase of the project, to build the MVP, firsthand research in India and China was conducted.
The resulting implementation was then tested at a pilot clinic in Hyderabad, India.
The second phase of this project started in January 2020, when the COVID-19 appeared.
As our main market was China, we were unable to conduct on field research and had limited access to the end users, nurses and doctors.
We had to adapt and run remote research using remote interviews and diary studies.
Define
As a result of the pilot (supporting app to the treatment sheet), we found out that in order to be able to really get our users (nurses) to use and test our system, we needed to replace the "treatment sheet" of paper currently being used for dialysis treatments.
The challenge then became: how not to disturb nurses from their primary mission: taking care of the patient, when we introduce a digital element into their workflow.
Design
Working closely with the client and the nurses feedback, we designed and developed a mobile and a web application along with a full design system.
The nurse to be journey
Nurse to be journey and app flow
Our design process was supported along the way by an as is and a to be nurse journey, helping us to keep on track with our research findings and facilitate communication with the client
testing
Testing methods used during the project
As getting real end users was an issue during the pandemic, we held two types of usability tests: one was remote in China with a couple of end users using the app and sharing their screen and the other one was in-person in Germany with former nurses.
The users testing the app in Germany had not worked as nurses for a long time, some since 10 years.
So, they weren’t the ideal participants.
In order to put them back in the shoes of the nurses we decided to conduct an interactive session that worked as a role play.
We staged one of the meeting rooms to look like a dialysis clinic with dialysis stations and an area to record weight.
The former nurses were then asked to test the app in this context and reflect.