Week 6: Overview

Work Overview

This week I worked on gathering more information on patient experiences and pinpointing what causes their anxiety and when they feel it the most. On Figma, I revised my journey map and stakeholder map to visualize how doctors, caretakers / loved ones, receptionists, and patients play a role in the act of receiving a diagnosis and undergoing a major procedure.

I also attended the group interview with Holly Stants, where I had the opportunity to hear about how the vision occupational therapy program builds up and empowers patients coping with their loss of vision. While the program is technically outside my area of focus, it was very helpful to learn about techniques for encouraging patients to maintain a positive outlook.

In class, we also learned about VOAs and how ranking the importance of criteria (must haves, nice-to-haves) can help outline the solution of the problem you are trying to solve for. This caused me to try to reconsider my scope in the area of “products”, and I used Figma to take a deeper look at the types of physical products that are seen in and around a doctor’s office and the related activities.

My focus is on assuaging patient anxiety around major procedures, particularly through the lens of communication.

Next Steps

• Follow up with Holly Stants on questions around procedure anxiety
• Synthesize insights from patient and therapist perspectives
• Start developing concepts