Gallery: How Restyling the Mundane Medical Record Could Improve Health Care
0108-bw-wired-design
[MedPop by PIIM](https://s3.amazonaws.com/challengepost/zip_files/production/5138/zip_files/VA_HEALTH.pdf) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Design: Christopher Goranson, Jihoon Kang, and Sayoko Yoshida from Parsons Institute for Information Mapping, [The New School](https://s3.amazonaws.com/challengepost/zip_files/production/5138/zip_files/VA_HEALTH.pdf)* While the original Blue Button records were entirely text based, this approach is highly visual, incorporating icons, detailed illustrations of medications, and common visual metaphors like stoplights and gauges to help put complex medical into a more approachable format. *Image: [The New School](https://s3.amazonaws.com/challengepost/zip_files/production/5138/zip_files/VA_HEALTH.pdf)*
0207-va-emr-wired-design
[__My Health History__](http://andrewconn.com/hdc/) --------------------------------------------------- *Design: [Andrew Conn](http://andrewconn.com/)* My Health History brings some interesting new ideas to EMRs, like highlighting dates of past appointments in a calendar view, but succeeds mostly by beautifully organizing complex information. A timeline view shows a chronology of care while the charts and graphs tracking biometrics clearly communicate progress toward a goal or a trend toward trouble. Bright colors and copious amounts of photos, as well cross-platform capabilities, make this design feel more like a social app than a medical tool. *Image: [Andrew Conn](http://andrewconn.com/)*
0306-medications-wired-design
[Stay Well by Teague](http://s3.amazonaws.com/challengepost/zip_files/production/5198/zip_files/HDC_VisualDesign_RPV_r2c03.pdf) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Design: [Teague Design](http://www.teague.com/)* Abstract records are great for the highly analytical, but most people like to see information in context. This approach color codes lab results to show which levels are in a healthy range and highlights those that might need attention. Also, doctors' photos are associated with prescriptions and procedures, making it easier for patients to associate caregivers and care choices. *Image: [Teague Design](http://www.teague.com/)*
0405-juhan-sohin-wired-design
[hGraph](https://s3.amazonaws.com/challengepost/zip_files/production/4940/zip_files/hgraph_goinvo_healthdesignchallenge.pdf?1354248603) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Design: Eric Benoit, Jon Follett, Ben Salinas, and Juhan Sonin from [Involution Studios](http://www.goinvo.com/)* Most EMRs focus on an individual patient, but the hGraph takes a novel approach collecting records for entire families. With research showing that conditions like obesity have a strong [social component](http://mailer.fsu.edu/~fheiland/Burke_Heiland07.pdf), unorthodox approaches like the hGraph might be just what the doctor will order in a few years time. *Image: [Involution Studios](http://www.goinvo.com/)*
0504-charts-wired-design
[Health Summary by HealthEd](http://s3.amazonaws.com/challengepost/zip_files/production/5014/zip_files/healthed_pmr_contest_120112.pdf) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Design: Mike Parker, Dan McGorry, and Kel Smith from [HealthEd](http://healthed.com/)* The key feature of this design is a circular widget that provides an overall health score along with color-coded symbols that provide an overview of the state of core body systems (e.g., heart, lungs, etc.) as well as lifestyle factors and mental state. It may be difficult to get numerically focused doctors to buy into the concept, but from a patient perspective it provides an at-a-glance view of their current health condition. *Image: [HealthEd](http://healthed.com/)*
0603-blue-button-method-wired-design
[Blue Button by Method](http://healthdesignchallenge.com/showcase/method/method.pdf) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Design: Melissa Martin, Ryan Lee, Kaisha Hom, James Lee, Jeremy Juel, and Leslie Velasco from [Method](http://method.com/)* Method's approach to the problem focused on making EMR data universally accessible whether on a desktop, tablet, or smartphone — there's even a foldable printout that can be carried in the wallet with critical information about medications, allergies, and emergency contact info. *Image: [Method](http://method.com/)*
0702-tack-emr-wired-design
[Studio TACK](http://healthdesignchallenge.com/showcase/studiotack/studiotack.pdf) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Design: William Brian Smith and Leigh Salem from [Studio TACK](http://www.studiotack.com/)* The motto for this project is "Don't give patients an archive, give them a strategy." It focuses on helping reduce the readmission rates to hospitals, 75 percent of which are preventable. The solution from Studio TACK combines a chronological presentation of the patient's history along with guidelines and instructions to help track symptoms and when to request help. *Image: [Studio TACK](http://www.studiotack.com/)*
0801-nightengale-emr-wired-design
The results of a contest [sponsored by the White House](http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/08/21/it-s-go-time-presidential-innovation-fellows) shows how powerful a dose of design can be in treating what ails our medical system. Electronic medical records (EMR) are extremely useful tools and can help improve patient care and reduce costs — if designed and used properly. Unfortunately, good design is hard to come by in this market. Health IT data standards, privacy laws, and impenetrable health systems complicate an already challenging design process and usually lead to lackluster products. One of the glaring problems is that it can be difficult for patients to gain access to their medical records. In an effort to combat this problem, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) developed a program called "Blue Button," a feature of VA EMRs that allows patients to download their results.  The program has been a huge success since its launch in August of 2010, with over 500,000 patients in the VA system using the service. The Blue Button functionality has since rolled out to Medicare patients and even private insurers like [United Healthcare](https://www.unitedhealthcareonline.com/ccmcontent/ProviderII/UHC/en-US/Assets/ProviderStaticFiles/ProviderStaticFilesPdf/News/Blue_Button_Gives_Members_Access_To_Their_Personal_Health_Records.pdf) are in the process of implementing it. Only one problem: Its output looks horrible.  [Ryan Panchadsaram](https://twitter.com/rypan), a Presidential Innovation Fellow and former startup founder organized a competition with the goal of making Blue Button more than a tool for access, but one that would give patients actionable information, stat. "We were inspired by the creativity of designers, their ability to take something that exists, transform it, and make it more valuable and usable," says Panchadsaram. "Our hope was to challenge some of the best across the country to take the simple text health record and create a better patient experience by improving the layout and applying a layer of visual design." "We have assembled a showcase of the top entries that challenged the status quo for the entire health community to be inspired by and learn from," he explains. "Our next step is for the curators to select a final design (that may combine elements from various submissions) to be built and open sourced on the code-sharing site [GitHub](https://github.com/). Our objective is to build the [Bootstrap](http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/) for the patient health record. With these tools, electronic health record software companies across the country should be able to integrate the final design into their products and contribute to the open-source project." The competition had four goals: - Improve the visual layout and style of the information from the medical record - Create a human-centered design that makes it easier for patient to manage their health - Enable health professionals to more effectively understand and use patients' health information - Help family members and friends care for their loved ones In the end, 230 individuals and groups responded, and were evaluated by design experts from the government and design worlds, including renowned pixel surgeon [Nicholas Felton](http://www.feltron.com/). Even though the designers worked independently, certain themes carried through many of the winning entries. iPhone and iPad apps were seen as natural evolution of EMRs even though few exist today. Overall health "scores" presented as a number inside of a circle were also popular, as well as including photos of the patients and their caregivers, a design feature common in social services, but almost unheard of in EMRs. Designers can't replace doctors, but they have produced a clear prescription for better tools. These eight selections are some of the winners and cooler entries from the contest. __Above:__ [Nightingale](http://healthdesignchallenge.com/showcase/nightingale/nightingale.pdf) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Design: Amy Guterman, Stephen Menton, Defne Civelekoglu, Kunal Bhat, Amy Seng, and Justin Rheinfrank from [gravitytank](http://www.gravitytank.com/)* Nightingale isn't just a record, but an action plan and comprehensive dashboard that stores results from the past, gives patients actionable information in the present (e.g., a medication schedule), and provides a view into future doctor appointments and activities. The application is dynamic and chock full of interactive data visualizations that manage to be understandable and highly personalized for each patient. This project was selected as the overall winner and is worth looking at as an aspirational model of what EMRs could become. *Image: [gravitytank](http://www.gravitytank.com/)*
