Health Care Design Conference - 2013 Boston

My goal is to help empower patients to take control of their health. When patients own and actively manage their health information, this benefits the patient (who has a feeling of control), the doctor (who is better informed), and the insurance company (who pays for fewer duplicate and unnecessary procedures). I've seen this play out repeatedly in my own health story. If we can give patients the tools and access they need to manage their healthcare, and if those tools are easy and enjoyable to use, I think we'll see a revolution of cost-efficiency, time-efficiency, and information connectedness in healthcare.

I love this talk from Thomas Goetz of Wired: "It's time to redesign medical data".

This talk challenges the status quo around medical data, especially lab results. Goetz shows how using information design and data visualization can transform these outdated, physician-facing paper documents into aesthetically-pleasing, data-rich tools that help foster physician-patient communication and help patients make sense of this complex (and often incomprehensible) information.

I was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease Myasthenia Gravis when I was 13, and I've taken an number of medications since that time to help manage my symptoms. Over time, those treatments have caused problems of their own, and I've developed another autoimmune disease; as my symptoms and doctor visits have increased in complexity, I've had to come up with new ways of tracking and communicating my health information. Last year I created an infographic of my health history, which I have since used to communicate my health story to each new doctor that I see. Both doctors and patients have given me positive feedback on this idea, and my goal now is to help other patients use visualization to better understand and communicate about their health stories. My story and mission are best summarized here: http://sensical.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/how-visualizing-health-problems-could-help-solve-medical-mysteries/

Healthcare tools and applications are exploding right now; but the most successful products will be those that are designed with a focus on providing an excellent experience. HxD brings together a community of people at that 'sweet spot' - the intersection of healthcare and experience design - who are poised to make the biggest difference in healthcare.

We have a lot to learn from patient innovators. By studying the problems they're solving for themselves, we can create new tools and services that truly meet an existing need - and are therefore more likely to succeed.