Improving empathy and engagement in the patient experience

The application was developed from evidence-based research with a goal of taking the patient experience to higher levels of meaningful engagement and activation across the care continuum. With iCare Navigator, empathetic virtual personal health coaches ask questions, and they listen. They provide information, education, relaxation, entertainment, and other patient-focused hospital services. Most important, they help motivate patients to participate and take more responsibility in their recovery.

TeleHealth asked us to help improve engagement with the iCare platform and thus raise patient understanding of procedures and care in the hospital setting. Likewise, patients need to understand what to do when they return home to reduce readmissions. After conducting primary and secondary research we defined user needs such as personalization and customization during an improved onboarding experience.

The iCare Navigator application runs on both tablets and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) systems in the hospital setting, as well as tablets in the patients’ home. Designing for each platform separately would increase the loads on learning and support activities for both providers and patients. We were asked to design task flows and interaction patterns that support a consistent experience across both platforms and their interfaces.

We enhanced the visual look and feel of their existing Avatars while adding facial expressions and poses. We also added two more characters providing a wider range of diversity based on user feedback. We also created a consistent set of expressions, poses and accessories to expand the range of use cases that the Avatars could support. Finally, we added a set of natural background users could choose from when customizing the application. Our hypothesis was that providing users with more choice in their personal health coach along with nature-themed backgrounds would help reduce anxiety of patients in the acute care setting.

Based on user testing we focused on improving the tasks of browsing for videos and getting detailed information for videos. For meal ordering we supported the tasks of browsing, selecting and checkout.

This innovative solution gives health care providers and patients a new set of tools for the acute care setting.  It represents a positive movement toward patient learning, adherence, and behavioral change:

• Increasing activation
• Providing entertainment and satisfaction
• Acting as a motivator for patients to modify long-term behavior

The use of virtual health coaches is helping patients better understand their discharge instructions. Health care professionals report this is having a significant impact on reducing readmissions.