M O D E R N ME DI CI NE
HEALTHIER LIVES THROUGH EMPATHY-GUIDED TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS
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t Microsoft Healthcare, many of our design team’s insights and contributions are derived from knowledge transferred from other industries and business settings along with entirely new insights and technology advancements. When I transitioned from designing consumer devices and joined the Health Futures team at Microsoft Healthcare about five years ago, my inspiration and motivation came from my desire to help people live healthier lives. From the start I have believed that we, as designers, contribute daily in unique and unexpected ways toward improving life. Empathy, a Source of Innovation Designers can inspire game-changing solutions that have a direct impact on people’s quality of life through the various insights derived from their research and by supporting interdisciplinary team members in developing empathy for one another, product users and stakeholders. Whereas many circumstances in today’s medical industry are out of our control, designers can make tremendous impact in one particular area: empathy. When teams invest in efforts to develop empathy for their users and stakeholders, crucial project objectives and priorities become clear. As we develop that empathy, it is important to remember that the medical industry entails a rather large and complex set of entities. These entities can include patients themselves, clinicians, payors, policymakers and pharmacists. They all have unique considerations that must be taken in account as we develop a deep understanding of their objectives and their journeys and recognize important connection points. For example, we must consider how the various roles within the delivery of medical/health and well-being products impact the marketing of these products. As designers, our mission is to bridge important communication gaps between scientists, engineers, biotechnologists, strategists, and healthcare and medical experts. For example, we learned that physicians and their clinical staff love their patients but not necessarily their
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computers. This is an attitude that does not resonate with technologists, and it’s difficult to sympathize with opinions different from your own. With this awareness, we must find engaging ways to provide breakthrough technologies that increase interaction with what the healthcare providers love (patients) rather than focus on what they don’t (computers). With the medical industry’s increased focus on preventative care, designers can transfer the insights they gained from developing successful consumer products to their work with healthcare categories. However, in the complex world of healthcare, designers cannot rely on their own research and experience-based conclusions. They must heavily lean on expert medical knowledge and input throughout the design development process. Only strong relationships with healthcare professionals will enable us to sufficiently empathize with their objectives, challenges, mitigations and emotions. From here, those gathered insights must be digestible for technologists and developers as they explore new solutions. As in other industries, designers must also remain vigilant in recognizing those who are excluded by our design proposals and provide solutions that reach a broader range of users and are more reflective of our diverse world. Future Advancements via Technology Two major technology areas are primed to change the healthcare industry: artificial intelligence and augmented reality. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of a computer program to think and learn. As new algorithms are developed that allow insightful information to be derived from massive amounts of data, numerous applications will arise, including ambient AI, remote patient monitoring via the internet of medical things (IoMT), precision medicine and health analytics. The majority of primary care doctors struggle with today’s electronic healthcare records. Information is incomplete and, at times, too difficult to locate. Finding
