Genomic Health

Creating a shared experience between Onocologists and patients

Executive Summary

At Salesforce, I led a team of designers and IOS developers on a significant project. Genomic Health offers cancer testing for breast and prostate cancer and gives valuable information to oncologists for personalized care decisions. My team helped develop an iPad app that made it easier for oncologists to discuss treatment options and success rates with patients during a challenging and emotional time. We aimed to provide important and easily understandable data to both oncologists and patients.

While working with seriously ill patients, I believed it was important for our development team to truly understand and connect with patients by conducting research. During the research, we discovered that patients faced difficulties in conveying their diagnosis to their loved ones and that cancer doesn't always mean death. With these findings, we understood the need for content that would help patients explain their diagnosis to their loved ones more effectively

Roles
Creative Director
UX/Research Led
Lead Designer

Process
Ideation
Research
Concepting
Stakeholder Alignment
Interaction Design
Prototyping

Duration
14 Weeks

Problem

Genomic Health is a top cancer testing company that focuses on breast and prostate cancers. They faced difficulties in explaining their findings to oncologists and patients. They had valuable data that could help oncologists select the right treatments based on the genetic composition of tumors. However, this data was hard for regular people to understand. They needed a way for oncologists to efficiently communicate the findings with patients.

Objectives

I managed a team consisting of 3 designers, 4 iOS developers, and additional help from an outside agency. As Genomic Health was a Salesforce Community Cloud customer, we created an iPad app that offered interactive tools for the Oncologist, as well as ways for them to collaborate with their patients, using Community Cloud as a web service.

I helped sell the deal, as well as managed the staffing and budget for the project, keeping it on-time and on-budget.

Research

As part of the project, I led a small research project with patients. The findings helped us refine the prototypes and also found an area that Genomic didn’t account for:

Patients needed a way to explain to their loved ones what was happening and that cancer didn’t have to be a death sentence. Based on this, we refined the application and content to provide tools for patients as well.

Process

During the development process, we used a standard double-diamond ux process to ensure the project timeline was on time and to make sure the right goals were achieved:

Phase 1: Understand
We conducted user research with both Oncologists AND patients to better understand their needs and wants.

Phase 2: Define
Based on the research, we developed requirements for the application collaboratively with design and development(Salesforce & Genomic Health), as well as the product owner.

Phase 3: Development
Based on the requirements, our design team created wireframes and visual designs and, after review, provided them to the development team, who worked with the internal Genomic development team so they could manage the application post-launch. Our Design team worked hand in hand with the product owner and oncologists to provide the proper infographics.

Phase 4: Finalize
We worked with Genomic’s internal QA team and soft-launched the iPad application as a beta. During the beta, we saw a 200% + increase in patient comprehension and understanding of the results. The product manager told us, that the application, updated process, and improved patient experience was a primary reason why Exact Sciences acquired Genomic Health.

Results

200% increase in patient understanding

58% increase in patients able to explain results to loved ones

The improved experience resulted in aquisition