MediCheck

Digital medication administration and communication for caregivers in healthcare facilities.

User Research | Interaction Design | Usability Testing

Together with Spits Alkmaar - a company that distributes medicines packed in bags per serving - Fonk developed a digital system in which caregivers can register the medicine intake of their patients and send out a request for a double check from other caregivers.

About half of all the prescribed medicines are taken improperly or are not taken at all. This problem is something Spits wants to solve. After focussing on consumers, they now focus on healthcare facilities.

In many healthcare facilities, the intake of medicines is registered on paper. The challenge with these documents is to keep them up to date with last minute changes and not lose them. Another big challenge that this industry is facing, is lack of time to give the care that is needed to every patient.

My responsibility was user research, interaction design and usability testing of the entire system.

Data, data, data

At the very beginning of this project, I mapped out all the data that was needed to make the system function according to the needs of the caregivers. This overview shows the different data sources, how the data gets linked and which user has which permissions regarding this data.

The Caregiver app

The system needed to facilitate different stakeholders in the process of distributing medicines to patients. For caregivers we developed an iPad app, so they are free to move around and can read and register everything that is needed about a patients medicine use.

The system needed to facilitate different stakeholders in the process of distributing medicines to patients. For caregivers we developed an iPad app, so they are free to move around and can read and register everything that is needed about a patients medicine use. Then there is a web portal for the management of the healthcare organisation.

Management and pharmacist portal

This web portal enables the management of a healthcare organisation to manage the data of their employees and patients in the system. In this same web portal, pharmacists have their own view. This can be used to keep track of the medicine usage of their patients and see if any changes might be needed.

The system needed to facilitate different stakeholders in the process of distributing medicines to patients. For caregivers we developed an iPad app, so they are free to move around and can read and register everything that is needed about a patients medicine use. Then there is a web portal for the management of the healthcare organisation.

Professionals can take some responsibility

During this project I had an interesting conversation about who to give responsibility. Should we make sure caregivers play by the book? Should we build a system that directs caregivers to work a certain way? Or should the system be flexible and leave all the responsibility with the caregiver?

We agreed that we shouldn’t take away responsibility from healthcare professionals. The caregivers are the people that know the real context of a situation. We can never predict what will happen while the system is being used. That is why the systems should be flexible, to make it usable for the caregivers in all situations.

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