This 10 minute talk concluded with a panel with two other presenters.
How do you make an impact on people’s lives in three weeks? I was selected to work on a pro-bono project to help health providers in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Uganda to increase the availability and lower the cost of cancer treatments. We were challenged to create a fully functioning software solution that would meet the needs of health care workers in forecasting the need for chemotherapy during the 3-week timeline. I’ll share the experience of working on a fast-paced project with a cross-functional team in this session.
We worked closely with the American Cancer Society, Clinton Health Access Initiative, NCCN and oncologists to create the ChemoQuant solution.
2. IBM Watson / Design vs. Cancer: Patients Win
@carologic / UXDC 2017 @UXDC #UXDC2017
IBM Health Corps
• Engage communities.
• Harness data.
• Transform health.
• American Cancer Society - Global
• NCCN (cancer treatment guidelines)
• Global health partners
– CHAI
– Ministries of Health in Ethiopia,
Nigeria, Uganda
https://www.ibmhealthcorps.org/
3. IBM Watson / Design vs. Cancer: Patients Win
@carologic / UXDC 2017 @UXDC #UXDC2017
1 UX, 2 SW engineers, a technologist, a visualization
architect and a business consultant move into a house…
4. IBM Watson / Design vs. Cancer: Patients Win
@carologic / UXDC 2017 @UXDC #UXDC2017
Reasons for success in 3 weeks
1. Clear problem definition
2. Availability of experts
3. Close contact with team and users
5. IBM Watson / Design vs. Cancer: Patients Win
@carologic / UXDC 2017 @UXDC #UXDC2017
Sub-Saharan Africa
• Lower-income countries
• Fewer hospitals
• Fewer doctors
• Fewer medicines and
equipment
• Even where services exist,
people are unable to afford
them
6. Problem: Cancer looks different in lower-income countries
People present late
for treatment
Outcomes are poorAccess to treatment
is limited
7. IBM Watson / Design vs. Cancer: Patients Win
@carologic / UXDC 2017 @UXDC #UXDC2017
Lack of awareness
of signs/symptoms
Stigma
Inability to get
to health facility
Cancer treatment
Lack of diagnostic
capacity
Lack of access
to treatment
Communities
Leaking pipeline to treatment
8. IBM Watson / Design vs. Cancer: Patients Win
@carologic / UXDC 2017 @UXDC #UXDC2017
Availability to experts
• NCCN advisors
– Guidelines supervisor
– Pharmacist
• Nurse oncologists
• Academics
• Watson for Oncology team
9. IBM Watson / Design vs. Cancer: Patients Win
@carologic / UXDC 2017 @UXDC #UXDC2017
Experts Built Logic Maps
10. IBM Watson / Design vs. Cancer: Patients Win
@carologic / UXDC 2017 @UXDC #UXDC2017
Close contact = living together
+ VizD
“Delivering high value in a short time: co-location, agile and design thinking”
Blog entry by Carol Smith: https://ibmhealthcorpsblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/
11. IBM Watson / Design vs. Cancer: Patients Win
@carologic / UXDC 2017 @UXDC #UXDC2017
Kanban – visible work
12. IBM Watson / Design vs. Cancer: Patients Win
@carologic / UXDC 2017 @UXDC #UXDC2017
Users – storyboarding, interviews…
13. IBM Watson / Design vs. Cancer: Patients Win
@carologic / UXDC 2017 @UXDC #UXDC2017
Rough, quick prototypes and discussions
14. IBM Watson / Design vs. Cancer: Patients Win
@carologic / UXDC 2017 @UXDC #UXDC2017
Final pieces: Everyone did data entry
15. IBM Watson / Design vs. Cancer: Patients Win
@carologic / UXDC 2017 @UXDC #UXDC2017
ChemoQuant: Forecasting Tool
16. IBM Watson / Design vs. Cancer: Patients Win
@carologic / UXDC 2017 @UXDC #UXDC2017
Distribution of cancer across population
17. IBM Watson / Design vs. Cancer: Patients Win
@carologic / UXDC 2017 @UXDC #UXDC2017
List of treatments to purchase
18. IBM Watson / Design vs. Cancer: Patients Win
@carologic / UXDC 2017 @UXDC #UXDC2017
Lack of awareness
of signs/symptoms
Stigma
Inability to get
to health facility
Cancer treatment
Lack of diagnostic
capacity
Access to
treatment
Communities
Impact
19. IBM Watson / Design vs. Cancer: Patients Win
@carologic / UXDC 2017 @UXDC #UXDC2017
3 reasons for success
1. Clear problem definition
2. Availability to experts
3. Close contact with team and users
20. IBM Watson / Design vs. Cancer: Patients Win
@carologic / UXDC 2017 @UXDC #UXDC2017
Work continues…
22. IBM Watson / Design vs. Cancer: Patients Win
@carologic / UXDC 2017 @UXDC #UXDC2017
Contact Carol
in/CarolJSmith
@Carologic
slideshare.net/carologic
23. Lightning Round: Design in Healthcare
• Erin Golden
• Panel Moderator
• Carol Smith
• Design vs. Cancer: Patients Win
• Erika Harvey
• Putting the Nurse into Healthcare
• Fatih Demir and Isa Jahnke
• Design Principles for Augmented Reality MCI Systems
Hinweis der Redaktion
NCCN - National Comprehensive Cancer Network
IBM Health Corps
Unlock the power of data to:
improve health outcomes
help eliminate health disparities
deliver lasting change across the globe.
Partner Organization
Increase the availability and lower the cost of cancer treatments.
Few cancer patients in sub Saharan Africa receive chemotherapy
IBM support creation of chemotherapy forecasting tool
Sabine (technologist), Gert (business consultant), Graham (visualization architect), Nicholas (SWE), me, Tom (SWE)
American Cancer Society’s notes:
Cancer looks very different in lower-income countries and these differences are important to understand. People present very late to health facilities for treatment. And when they do come to health facilities, access to treatment is very limited and the vast majority do not get treatment. As a result, cancer outcomes are very poor.
80-90% of people are in advanced stages by the time they present to a cancer treatment facility. Why? Well for one, there is low awareness about cancer in the general population and among medical providers. It is common for patients to be treated for months or years for other conditions before cancer is suspected. There is also a lot of stigma and fear around cancer and that causes people to delay seeking treatment if they suspect they may have cancer. The stigma and fear is driven by the very high mortality rates and the tremendous suffering that people associate with cancer. Finally, there is limited access to high-quality healthcare. Lower-income countries simply have fewer hospitals and fewer doctors. And those hospitals and doctors have fewer medicines and equipment. Even where services do exist, many people are unable to afford them.
American Cancer Society’s notes (modified for UXDC audience):
It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the multiple barriers and we need a way to think more constructively about the challenges
A story for illustration: A young boy named Paul has eye cancer, but was delayed in getting treatment. The first delays were caused by having been treated initially with eye drops because of a lack of awareness of signs and symptoms of cancer. Then, as his disfigurement increased, he faced stigma and fear in his community. His inability to get to a health facility, or one that could help him, was a tremendous barrier. And when he did get to one, there were additional barriers due to the lack of diagnostic capacity and lack of access to treatment. Layered across the entire continuum are challenges due to limited budgets of ministries of health, the fact that even nominal costs are prohibitive to people, including tests, medicines, transportation, and lodging. And the lack of trained human resources, including doctors, nurses, and technologists.
All along this continuum, people leak out of the pipeline, either giving up or dying before they get to treatment. And for us, this continuum suggests a sequencing. Before we put a lot more water in the pipe, we should move backwards from the end, patching up the holes along the way. So we start at the places where patients have made it all of the way to the end and then cannot access treatment. In Paul’s case, the final barrier was $15 for radiotherapy. So we start there and make sure that everyone who has a cancer diagnosis and is at the national hospital for treatment can get it. And then, when we’ve done that, we start to tackle diagnostic capacity. Improvements in diagnosis will push more people along the continuum, ready for treatment. And we’ll keep going like this until we are working in communities, raising awareness about cancer and it’s signs and symptoms.
And we’ll always need to address these cross-cutting barriers:
Limited budgets in ministries of health
Nominal costs are prohibitive: tests, medicines, transport, lodging
Lack of trained human resources
Still need to address these cross-cutting barriers:
Limited budgets in ministries of health
Nominal costs are prohibitive: tests, medicines, transport, lodging
Lack of trained human resources