Fighting a Global Health Crisis

Fighting a Global Health Crisis

Vaccinating millions and reaching underserved populations to combat the COVID-19 pandemic

For Epic, October 2020 - February 2021

My Role: Co-designing and usability test planning alongside an excellent R&D team

Collaborators: UX designers and researchers, product, R&D, and clinical informatics

To protect intellectual property, screenshots, descriptions of the workflow, and details about the design and development process are not included.

Opportunity

Hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 vaccines will be administered each day at mass immunization sites. Provide a clear, efficient mobile workflow for various staff to document the vaccination.

Outcomes

Over 4,000,000 mobile vaccines have been administered with this feature, allowing an average throughput of < 8 minutes for visitors of some mass vaccination sites. At-risk and underserved populations are being reached with mobile immunizations.

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Background

Background

The Fall of 2020 had a lot of us on the edge of our seats to see what would happen with potential COVID-19 vaccines. What will get FDA approval? How effective will it be? When will it be available to me and my loved ones? Health systems and health IT vendors had their own anticipation to add: How are we going to support such a massive rollout of immunizations?

It made sense for many to replicate the success and infrastructure of mass testing sites, creating or converting to mass vaccination sites. There was also effective IT available, but vaccination at this scale and pace presented unprecedented challenges:

  • Workflows would need to be surpassingly efficient while maintaining clarity and safety.
  • Mass vaccination sites would be staffed by highly-practiced clinical professionals, but also by less-informed volunteers and retirees. UX patterns would need to be intuitive for folks without experience in medical software.
  • New vaccines and guidelines, available supply, and system updates will rarely be perfectly in sync. We must flex and provide guidance for the unknowns.

I was part of a team at Epic that crafted the mobile workflow to address these challenges.

Process

Process
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I was both a UX designer and a user-centered design consultant on this project. I bounced between creating mockups, advising on research and usability testing, and iterating on the UI per study results.

While I can’t tell you about our full process, I can tell you that there was an excellent research & development team behind this project. Folks really dug into understanding the nuance of guidelines and anticipated use cases. A lot was designed proactively, giving us time to vet our decisions. I was thankful to be part of such a scrappy, driven group.

Outcomes

Outcomes

Over 4,000,000 vaccines have been administered with this feature. Some sites have gotten patients through their line in fewer than eight minutes on average. Here’s a bit more about how this project, along with the rest of the Epic software suite, has helped make millions safer from the virus:

"Mass vaccination event gives 10,000 elated Coloradans life-saving COVID-19 vaccines. One man also survived the 1918 pandemic." An article from UC Health.
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" 'We’re out here in the middle of a parking lot. But each tent has handheld devices that look like smart phones. They’re called rovers. And in real time, the (health care providers) are logging into Epic, (the medical record),' Deanda said. At the push of a button, providers could track their patients so they could quickly get to the important task at hand, pushing vaccines into arms. 'The secret sauce is IT,' said Zane."
"Epic, Cerner offer updates on COVID-19 vaccine rollout efforts." An article from Healthcare IT News.
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"Epic, for its part, noted that the company expects to add up to 100 additional sites in the next 30 days. The vendor also said its software is being used to administer approximately 500,000 vaccinations daily, both at mass vaccination sites and traditional clinical settings."
"SAN FRANCISCO LAUNCHES FIRST HIGH-VOLUME COVID-19 VACCINATION SITE." A publication from the City of San Francisco.
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"The high-volume vaccination sites, like the new site at City College, will be complemented by targeted efforts to ensure communities most highly-impacted by COVID-19 receive equitable access to the vaccine. These targeted efforts include mobile vaccination teams, community vaccination sites, San Francisco Department of Public Health’s community clinics, and other safety net clinics in neighborhoods such as Chinatown, the Mission, the Western Addition, and the Bayview."
"Hawaii’s first mass vaccination to kick off on Monday." An article from the Honolulu Star Advertiser.
Hawaii Pacific set up a large vaccination site at the Honolulu Pier 2 Terminal. They bypassed the restrictive network and power needs of desktop workstations by using the mobile vaccination workflow.

Reflection

Reflection

It was a privilege to be part of this work, both because of the team I mentioned and also for the impact it had on patients and healthcare workers across the states. Some of my loved ones were those vaccinated by clinicians using this tool.

Health IT is full of robust workflows for users with deep clinical expertise. Putting a premium on simplicity for all was a fun change of pace from the specialized workflows I had typically tackled before.