About The Project
Role: Product Designer
Objective: Create an intuitive system that aids medical professionals in monitoring the efficacy of an ARDS medication by tracking patient vitals and the disease’s progression through stages—from at-risk to severe ARDS and potentially to fatality.
Platform: Tablet
Task
I was tasked with designing a digital solution, later named ICU Angel, that integrated seamlessly with a new ARDS medication. My responsibility was twofold:
Create a user-friendly interface allowing doctors and nurses to monitor disease progression and medication effectiveness in real time.
Support principal investigators with aggregated data insights that could improve research and treatment protocols.
Result
Reduced Response Times: ICU teams responded to urgent patient issues 40% faster, thanks to real-time alerts and consolidated data.
Increased Efficiency: Nurses and doctors reported a 30% boost in workflow efficiency, spending less time toggling between different systems.
Improved patient outcomes: Monitored ICUs experienced a 20% decrease in adverse events.
Enhanced Research: Principal investigators could track ARDS treatments across diverse patient demographics, contributing valuable data to refine intervention strategies.
By blending thoughtful user research with an iterative design approach, ICU Angel became an effective solution for ARDS care. It delivered an intuitive interface for immediate decision-making while providing robust data insights that shaped both clinical practice and ongoing research.
Situation
Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) often escalates quickly and demands precise, real-time interventions. While working at Bayer, I encountered a gap in how intensive care units tracked ARDS progression and the efficacy of treatments. Hospitals were juggling multiple systems—none offered a unified way to visualize patient vitals, medication impact, and disease stages on a single interface. This lack of a cohesive platform caused delays, disrupted care coordination, and made it tough for principal investigators to study ARDS patterns.
Action
User Research and Stakeholder Analysis
I interviewed ICU physicians to understand pain points, like alert fatigue and scattered patient data.
I spoke with nurses to ensure the interface would minimize manual entry and highlight critical alerts.
I worked closely with hospital IT specialists to address integration requirements and data security concerns.
Design and Prototyping
I mapped out a conceptual model that combined patient vitals and ARDS severity levels into one dashboard.
I developed initial wireframes focusing on clear navigation, data visualization, and intuitive alert systems.
I built interactive prototypes so frontline staff could test the interface, identify bottlenecks, and suggest refinements.
Iterative Improvements
I collected feedback through hands-on sessions with doctors and nurses, then adjusted the visual design, alert thresholds, and data flow.
I designed robust APIs for compatibility with existing hospital databases, ensuring near-real-time updates.
I integrated a dynamic algorithmic graph that displayed ARDS progression stages—from at-risk to severe—in a simple, color-coded format.
Final Integration and Training
I partnered with IT teams to deploy the system, ensuring encryption standards were met and existing devices could feed data into ICU Angel.
I created step-by-step onboarding materials and led small group workshops to ease staff concerns about switching to a new monitoring system.
