Enabling cardiac patients to confidently communicate medical history
Client: Philips
2022 | LifeLine
This project focused on improving the home care management experience for cardiac patients. Recognizing the challenges patients face after diagnosis and during long-term care, we designed "Lifeline," a system of services combining a digital platform with unique human support, aimed at providing greater clarity, autonomy, and expectation management throughout the patient journey. This project focused specifically on achieving user-market fit for the refined concept.
The Challenge: Fragmentation and Uncertainty in Cardiac Care
The journey for cardiac patients post-diagnosis is often fraught with challenges:
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Emotional Overload: Patients face significant emotional and informational burdens immediately after diagnosis.
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Fragmented Care Path: Due to healthcare silos, patients struggle to navigate their long-term care, often unsure who to contact, leading to anxiety and dips in emotional well-being.
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Inconsistent Processes: Referrals and the level of support vary drastically between healthcare providers (e.g., hospitals), impacting care uptake.
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Lack of Overview: Both patients and some healthcare professionals lack a clear, unified view of the patient's care trajectory, past interventions, and future plans.
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Need for Self-Management Support: While crucial, self-management is difficult when the care path is unclear and support is inconsistent.
The Approach: User-Centered Service Design with Student Integration
We employed a user-centered service design approach, focusing on understanding the needs of patients and key stakeholders to develop a valuable and viable solution. The core principles included:
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Iterative Design: This project represents the third iteration of the Lifeline concept, continually refining the solution based on previous findings and focusing this phase on user-market fit.
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Stakeholder Collaboration & Market validation: Engaging with patients, students, hospitals (clinicians), and industry (Philips) to validate the concept and understand value exchange.
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Human-Centered Support: Integrating human assistance to complement the digital tools, specifically addressing patient overwhelm and technical hurdles.
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Ethical Considerations: Carefully evaluating and refining the roles and responsibilities within the service, particularly concerning student involvement, to ensure patient safety and empowerment.
The Process: Defining, Validating, and Refining the Lifeline Service
Journey Mapping & Problem Recap
Analyzed the current cardiac patient journey, confirming significant emotional challenges post-diagnosis and during long-term care due to information overload, lack of clarity, and siloed communication. Identified inconsistent referrals and the importance of self-management.
User Profiling
Developed three distinct patient profiles (The Overwhelmed Multi-Patient, The Assertive Undertaker, The Critical Activist) based on technology uptake, care engagement, and primary needs, ensuring Lifeline catered to diverse patient types through tailored value (human assistance vs. ownership/autonomy tools).
Developing the USP: Student support
Introduced the core differentiator: practical and technical support provided by medical students (positioned as part of a Philips student innovation team). Three key scenarios were defined where student support could benefit the care path: Missing patient data, technical support, patient being 'lost' in Care Path.
Ethical Refinement of Student Role
Based on expert consultation (Lukas Dekker, Dutch Hart Network), critically reviewed the student role. Crucially, the medical advisory and monitoring responsibilities were removed to align with ethical considerations regarding student capabilities and patient safety. The role was confined to technical, practical, and navigational support.
Concept Refinement (3 iterations)
Defined the core Lifeline offering: a digital platform (app/website) visualizing the patient's unique cardiac care path, accessible by patients and professionals (via EPF/E-mail integration), aimed at increasing clarity, expectation management, and autonomy.
Stakeholder Validation (Students)
Conducted surveys (n=17) with medical students to validate their interest and motivations. Confirmed interest in health innovation and gaining practical experience, with intrinsic motivation (experience, societal contribution) proving stronger than extrinsic factors (ECTS, monetary compensation). Validated openness to technical/support roles but confirmed ethical concerns about medical responsibility.
Stakeholder Value Proposition (Hospital & Philips)
Defined the value for other key stakeholders:
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Hospital: Increased clinician efficiency (focus on medical tasks), potential for using more advanced patient tracking, improved standard of care, reduced readmissions.
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Philips: Expanded market for smart health devices, valuable innovation input from students for product development.
Business Model & Competitive Analysis
Utilized the Business Model Canvas to map value exchange. Analyzed competitors, identifying Lifeline's unique position in combining human (student) social/technical support with a medical remote patient monitoring overview system, bridging the gap between existing solutions.
The Outcome: The Refined Lifeline Service Concept
The project culminated in a validated and ethically refined concept for Lifeline, a cardiac home care management system comprising:
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A Digital Platform (App/Website): Provides patients with a clear, personalized visualization of their cardiac care path, including past and future appointments and integration points for telemonitoring data. Allows secure access for healthcare professionals.
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Structured Student Support: Medical students offer low-threshold technical and practical assistance (device setup, platform navigation, answering non-medical questions) and navigational support (monitoring engagement, redirecting patients when "lost"), operating within clearly defined, ethically sound boundaries.
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Improved Patient Journey: Offers increased clarity, autonomy, and a feeling of security ("safety net") for patients, reducing anxiety and improving the rehabilitation experience through both digital tools and personalized human contact.
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Enhanced Ecosystem Value: Provides tangible benefits for clinicians (efficiency), students (experience), and Philips (market access, innovation).
Lifeline offers an appealing, validated service concept that addresses key pain points in the current cardiac care journey by uniquely integrating digital clarity with ethically considered human support.