A mobile app that translates and explains personal medical records for non native English speakers.
UX Researcher
February 2024 (36 hours)
Developed during a 36-hour producthon (think of a hackathon, minus the programming), UniMed supports non native English speakers through translating their personal medical records and providing accurate descriptions of what test results actually measure. As the head of research, I found that non native English speakers tend to have lower medical literacy, which puts them at a higher risk for health issues. Through explaining medical terms by only using credible sources (CDC, NIH) and translating a patient’s documents, UniMed bridges a disparity in patient-physician communication.
Non native English (NNE) speakers struggle with comprehending their personal medical documents. While many people of differing linguistic backgrounds struggle to understand what medical tests are truly assessing, this difficulty is even greater for NNE speakers. Doctors try to aid the problem through explaining terms multiple times and using visual aids, but are often under strict time constraints and unable to completely fix the issue.
UniMed lets patients check their medical test results in their native language and explains what tests are assessing using information sourced from academic journals. For instance, a user could have a cholesterol test done during their doctor's appointment and later use UniMed to read about cholesterol's role in the body.
UniMed allows users complete control over viewing their records, without having to call the doctor.
Explanations of medical tests are written using only peer-reviewed academic articles, sourced from places like the NIH.
Translation options help non native English speakers understand their medical tests.
After conducting a literature review, I found that NNE speakers are at higher risk of low medical literacy, which correlates to “greater difficulty understanding prescription drug labels, limited knowledge of disease self-management skills, a higher incidence of hospitalization, and higher mortality rates” (Kripalani, et al).
The research my team accomplished supported the conclusion found in the literature. We interviewed 5 medical professionals and 4 non native English speakers to hear their perspective on the issues that a language barrier presents in patient-physician communication. We obtained 60+ survey responses that had similar sentiments of frustration when dealing with medical jargon.
"When I didn’t speak English, I went months without seeking medical help.” - survey respondent
"There’s not enough time to explain everything to patients with limited English proficiency.” - medical professional during interview
Due to the time constraint (36 hours!), we decided to use the lean UX methodology, which meant that our designers were creating before the research was viable. As a result, the key takeaways from our research led to multiple changes in our product.
UniMed was initially only a translation service, but we implemented more features that addressed medical literacy and promoted a holistic and comprehensive understanding of medical tests.
As compared to Epic’s MyChart, which lets users pay bills, request refills, and more, UniMed is limited to translating and explaining medical records. The features of UniMed are unique, but the app is best when used in conjunction with a pre-existing patient portal. It currently does not suffice as a replacement for other patient portals, and thus medical providers would then have to upload records in two places, the patient portal and UniMed. This slows down the workflow of medical providers. In a perfect world, UniMed is expanded upon so that it can be a sufficient competitor in the patient portal market, or it is acquired and integrated with a pre-existing patient portal, so more patients are able to access the ability to translate and interpret their medical records.
On the topic of scope, we recognize that the target audience of UniMed (NNE speakers with regular access to healthcare) is a small subset of the population that faces health inequities. Many NNE speakers face barriers to healthcare that prevent frequent visits to a healthcare provider and UniMed does not increase access to healthcare for these communities. In our user interviews, we found that the problem of health inequality among NNE speakers was an issue that ran deep and involved access to education and healthcare, cultural differences, and socioeconomic factors. In this sense, UniMed is not, and does not try to be, a fix-all solution. Instead, we wish it to be a step in the right direction to get the conversation started. We also wish to empower our target audience by giving them control over their health by developing a deeper understanding of their medical records and encouraging self-advocacy during visits to the doctor.
This was the first time I worked on a team with other designers and had a delegated role. As a result, I was able to really dig deep in my research role and provide a comprehensive understanding of our problem space for the team. I discovered that I really love the research aspect of UX. I’m drawn to speaking with others and synthesizing data into tangible action items.
The other designers on my team were incredibly supportive and talented. I was always in awe watching them design so quickly, and definitely learned a lot from them. I also learned how to effectively collaborate without getting too caught in the weeds by redirecting the team’s focus, and compiling important decisions in a document to prevent repeated debate.
As a designer who has been known to worry over the details, the length of this producthon really forced me to prioritize the most important things, and leave the rest on the chopping block. Consequently, I learned how to quickly identify what was most important for our users and our product, and to not stray far from our mission statement of helping non native English speakers with healthcare.