Cura App

Improving Patients At-Home Wound Care Experience with AI Voice Assistance

OverviewContextProblemSolutionDemoImpactProcessResearchIterationReflection

Overview

Skin cancer patients often face challenges managing wound care on their own after MOHS surgery, frequently experiencing anxiety or uncertainty when unexpected issues arise. To enhance their healing experience, I collaborated with the Advanced Wound Care Center at University Hospitals for my MHCI Capstone project and developed a comprehensive solution, including a redesigned instruction sheet and the AI-powered wound care assistant -- Cura App, aimed at improving post-surgical wound care for skin cancer patients.

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TIMELINE
Jan 2024 - Aug 2024 (7 Months)
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ROLE
Product Designer
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TEAM (8 Members)
Product Manager *1
Product Designer *2
UX Researcher *2
UHC Clients *3
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RESPONSIBILITY
Field Research | Usability Testing
Design System | Prototyping
Project Management (Agile)

Context

Most skin cancer patients undergo Mohs surgery, which involves a demanding recovery period lasting approximately 4 to 6 weeks.

Target Audience
Mohs Surgery Patients
(Age: 40-80)
Around 9500 people

are diagnosed with skin cancer everyday
Over 800K
annual Mohs surgery patients
Problem

Patients often face anxiety and challenges managing wound care issues independently at home, which can impact their recovery outcomes.

Current wound care support is insufficient and ineffective, leaving patients to navigate challenges alone at home, often feeling frustrated and anxious. This leads to frequent clinic calls, overburdening providers and delaying patient support, increasing stress and uncertainty.

Objective

How can we support patients in managing unexpected problems at home with confidence and reduced anxiety?

We aim to design a solution that not only offers immediate support for at-home challenges but also empowers patients with the skills and mindset to navigate issues independently.

Solution

Cura App - AI Voice Assistant that helps navigate unexpected problems with confidence and Personalized Wound Care Guidance

With AI, we ensure patients receive immediate and personalized guidance for wound care problems, enabling them to remain calm and develop problem-solving skills without over-relying on their providers when issues arise.

Design Details

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Describe symptoms verbally or take a picture for diagnosis

Cura's AI voice assistant provides patients with immediate answers 24/7.  Patients can either speak directly with Cura or upload a picture to help AI analyze their situation.

Context-specific answers

Follow-up questions to clarify situations, ensuring the guidance is tailored to their specific needs.

Call Summary

A concise and clear call summary for patients to refer to whenever they encounter similar problems.

Personalized wound care information

A daily care calendar enhance patients adherence to wound care procedure.

Tailored notification &
Daily check-in

Follow-up notifications to check the wound status and determine the next steps.

Demo

Concept Video

Impact

Promising results for both solutions to improve patient's wound care experience in the future.

Cura App

We conducted three rounds of testing and iteration with over 40 participants, including patients from University Hospitals of Cleveland and members of a local senior center in Pittsburgh.

8.7/10
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Overall Usability Score
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36% increase
 
Willingness to adopt
Cura App
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82% of participants

Successfully addressed problems using the Cura app (Testing Scenarios)
Research

Uncover the hidden challenges in wound care

001

Feel what they feel

Navigating instructions and adapting to changes in facial expressions and social interactions revealed both physical and emotional challenges, providing me with valuable insight into the 
patient experience.
002

Interact with real patients at the clinic

On the morning of February 7th, we headed to Cleveland for a site visit, armed with interview guides, worksheets and above all, our enthusiasm.
003

Learn from experts and find out the hidden pain points

We recruited 6 nurses from the University Hospitals of Cleveland, along with 2 nurses and 1 dermatologist from University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, to understand more about wound care practices, focusing on daily patient interactions, post-op care, and at-home instructions.
004

Turn research insights into design ideas

Based on user needs identified in our research, we generated 50 solution ideas and refined them to 9 final concepts for testing with our target audience through interviews.

Key Insights 💡

Synthesizing our findings, we identified two main patient pain points. These insights led us to develop two key 'How Might We' questions that guided our design process.

001
Patients are unprepared when unexpected situations arise.

We want them to understand that potential complications may arise and prepare them to deal with them. By better preparing them, we aim to reduce anxiety and empower them to more effectively navigate challenges without over-reliance on the providers.

“
How might we ensure patients receive immediate answers and reassurance while reducing the workload for nurses?
002
The current wound care procedure doesn’t feel personalized beyond the clinic.

We found that all patients receive the same 4-page instruction sheet, despite their individual wound locations and experiences. This lack of personalization fails to engage patients and encourage them to review the materials thoroughly.

“
How might we personalize wound-care materials to increase patient trust and attention?
Design Explorations

Reimagining What’s Possible Through Bold Design Exploration

Collaborative workshops to brainstorm ideas with clients and design experts

Generated 50+ ideas based on different combinations of technology and problems

Crafting lo-fi prototypes to test our concept in the field

Designing with AI: Incorporating AI-powered features to support independent problem-solving and optimize the use of medical resources.

01
AI can provide immediate answers despite external constraints.
02
AI can help triage less severe calls to streamline clinical workflow
Iteration

Enhance Accessibility and Usability

The main issue highlighted during our mid-fi testing was TRUST. Although 34% of participants felt comfortable interacting with AI during testing, none were willing to choose it as a viable solution in real-life situations. To address this , we developed the following strategies to enhance our use of AI:

User Testing

3    
rounds of testing session

42    
UHC Patients & Nurses

4   
tasks with semi-structure interviews

Many users were concerned about AI providing trustworthy and tailored answers and their abilities to explain clearly.

Add context-specific questions with visuals/options to help patients better clarify their situation

Patients often got stuck by the overwhelming categories to find information they needed.

Include only commonly used information patients need
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Participants were confused about the calendar and failed to find information effectively

Clarify the date with concise information
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Extended Solution

Redesigned Wound Care Instruction Sheets

Before problems arise, we proactively enhance patient adherence and better prepare them to face challenges in advance. A user-friendly instructions that provide patients with clear, actionable guidance, making it easier to absorb essential information. By enhancing the material's usability, patients are more likely to engage with it and be better prepared for unexpected issues.

🔖 Location-Specific Guidance

An additional location-specific guidance add-on. This tailored information provides patients with specific precautions based on their situations, making the materials more personalized to their needs.

02/ Redesigned Material: The current 4-page material is...

🙋 Not Personalized
📝 Lengthy & Wordy
👀 Hard-To-Navigate

During our conversations with patients, we learned that most preferred the paper format of the wound care instructions. However, when we asked them to find specific information during testing, they struggled, revealing that the sheet was difficult to navigate and too wordy.

- 001 Reorganizing Information -
- 002 Image-based Visuals -
- 003 Information Hierarchy -
001
Ease of Navigation

We measured all participant's 'time to task completion' to assess the navigability for our redesigned instruction sheet, asking them to directly locate specific information on the sheet.

002
Information Digestion

We also measured their 'accuracy' in completing tasks to determine whether the redesigned material not only helped them find the information but also understand and apply it effectively.

Reflection

From 0 to 1: The Journey of a Product Designer’s Growth

💪🏼 Dealing with ambiguity
Starting with a broad topic, identifying the core problem is key in design. In this project, early ambiguity helped us explore and refine ideas, eventually revealing the real issue. It showed me that ambiguity is an opportunity to pivot and clarify the problem.
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🤝 Empathize with Our Users — They’re Your Closest Friend in the Design Process
Empathy is central to UX design, and in this project, it was key to our success. I’m grateful to our client for allowing us to engage with patients, doctors, and nurses. Their firsthand insights deepened our understanding of their struggles, enabling us to create solutions that were both functional and emotionally resonant.
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🧠 Think outside the box
Breaking conventional boundaries and letting creativity lead was key. I was encouraged to explore bold, unconventional solutions that initially seemed impractical. This process reinforced that the best solutions often come from stepping outside the comfort zone and thinking beyond traditional frameworks.
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Our Team

Fun Moments ✨✨ Wonderful Memories 🥳🥳

Let's work together!

Get in touch to collaborate or just to talk.

Joanne Yang
copyright@joanne 2024