3 insights into designing user-friendly medical devices

The lack of trust across healthcare continues to burden physicians and patients. In fact, a majority of patients report they’ve had at least one negative experience with their healthcare provider. However, medtech manufacturers can help restore trust and it’s relatively straightforward to incorporate such steps into the manufacturing process.

Here are three ways to boost patient trust when manufacturing medtech products.

1: Trustworthy products are easy to use
Make it easy to learn how to effectively use the product as intended.

To ensure even first-time patients use a product safely and effectively, it’s essential to incorporate affordances into the design. Visible, audible, or tactile cues should be integrated wherever possible to ensure intuitive use of the device. For example, when using an epinephrine auto-injector for the first time, patients should be able to easily identify:

• The end of the device containing the needle or jet injector by using distinct shapes (e.g., conical).
• Which cap needs to be removed prior to injection by using visual cues such as a distinctive color (e.g., bright blue) or texture (e.g., ribbed) to highlight the correct cap.
• The injection trigger by visual cues such as the size, shape, or texture of the button or release, which manufacturers can use to signal its location.

Design affordances are intended to make medical devices easy to use. For more intricate devices, however, it’s not always feasible to convey all aspects of intended use through design affordances. Instructional materials can communicate complex information and emphasize critical safety details.

Some end users will always be predisposed to not read instructional materials no matter how well they’re designed. But poorly designed instructions can discourage even the most conscientious users from taking the time necessary to understand critical information.

It’s a concern when patients skim or disregard instructional materials, as they may miss information crucial to guiding safe and effective use, leading to unnecessary use errors resulting in patients losing trust in a product. To address this, patient-oriented manufacturers should present the most critical information in easily identifiable, digestible sections.

For example:

• Include a visually focused quick-reference guide to teach patients how to use a connected blood pressure monitor.
• Develop an in-app onboarding tour for a wearable fitness tracker’s companion app.

Presented with clear and concise instructions, patients may feel less overwhelmed when first using a device and are more likely to trust the device will work as they understand it will (and as their care team intends it to).

Novice and experienced users can have different expectations and requirements with instructions. And there are numerous scenarios that can impact patient interactions, so it’s crucial to consider as many as reasonable when creating a user interface and instructional materials.

2: Feedback confirms correct use to further build patient trust
After showing straightforward affordances and well-designed instructional materials, the next step is providing users with clear feedback confirming they’re using the product correctly. This could be as straightforward as implementing audible signals, such as clicks or beeps, indicating the beginning or completion of each step. For instance, an initial beep could signify the start of an auto-injector’s injection process, while a second beep could confirm that the injection is finished.

Auto-injectors with more advanced features could also incorporate visual cues, such as an LED that changes color from green to blue, to indicate progress at each step of the process.

Designing only for a product’s initial use isn’t sufficient. Manufacturers should study the product’s usage over time to ensure users’ evolving experiences and needs are supported.

The steps involved in using the initial EpiPen models, for instance, were relatively straightforward: patients would read a set of instructions printed on the device before using the device to administer an epinephrine injection into their thigh.

Many first-time EpiPen users, however, go years between being prescribed and taught how to use their EpiPen and actually needing it. The problem? By the time they experience an allergic reaction, patients may not remember how to use their EpiPen. Or perhaps they’ve been prescribed a new, familiar looking product and assumed it worked the same – only to discover it doesn’t.

Additionally, while experiencing the onset of anaphylaxis, even the most prepared patient may become too overwhelmed and stressed to remember how to use it.

These examples are why it’s crucial for medical technology manufacturers to conduct comprehensive user research and integrate the resulting insights into each new product design.

How might this be put into action in the real world? Taking into account the factors mentioned above, one manufacturer created an epinephrine auto-injector addressing the delay between prescription and use along with the possibility of users being under stress: the device provides verbal guidance to lead patients through the injection process.

3: Empathy is the lodestar for trust-focused design teams
Building easy-to-understand products reinforcing intended use with feedback can help medtech manufacturers inspire patients to trust products.

These are noble objectives, but this entire process has to start with empathy.

By trying to anticipate, comprehend, and address patients’ feelings regarding their medical conditions – and how these feelings can be compounded by the perspectives of others – medtech manufacturers can build products with the potential to improve patients’ physical and emotional well-being.

While this belief stems from various experiences throughout my professional life, there’s one that’s stuck with me for many years. I was once conducting research for a novel way to administer a particular drug via auto-injector. Up until then, the standard for delivering that medicine had been a syringe and vial-type treatment.

One day, a patient we were working with learned we were researching and working toward a new auto-injection technology, and she almost broke down in tears.

The reason? Needles and syringes were heavily stigmatized in U.S media so whenever the patient had to self-administer her medication, she was reminded of the attitudes she observed connecting needles and addiction.

Her response reflected the possibility of being able to manage her healthcare without having to battle the stigma – and associated feelings of shame – she felt was attached to it.

Manufacturers can foster a sense of wellbeing for patients during their entire care journey by adopting an empathetic approach to design.

Building patient trust is an ongoing effort
From physical design updates (such as those possible for auto-injectors) to features accounting for patient needs beyond the product’s primary use, increasing patients’ trust in a product can be achieved by setting design priorities that are broadly responsive to how various users may adopt the product – now and in the future.

An individual patient’s context of use evolves over time. The needs of an adolescent diagnosed with diabetes change as that individual ages. And just as context of use for an individual evolves, so does the broader context of use in relation to technological advancement. Trust isn’t developed in a vacuum, and it’s not always built by a linear process. Listen to your users and be mindful of how to increase trust as their needs for your product evolve.

Bold Insight
https://boldinsight.com