The Pre-Med Handbook
About: A design solution to help physicians improve bedside manner and build empathy during the undergraduate phase.
Class: ARTT454 (Design in Society)
How Might We?
How might we improve patients’ experiences when they visit their doctor? How might we help aspiring physicians build skills such as empathy or trustworthiness?
These questions helped guide my problem-solving when thinking about potential solutions.
User Interviews
Undergraduate Students
Pre-Med Students at the University of Maryland were interviewed (45 - 60 min.) about their experiences.
Interviews focused on characterizing the extent to which pre-meds are trained in soft skills and where they notice deficiencies. Full Interview Notes
Practicing Physicians
This interview was conducted more informally and at a shorter duration (15 min.).
Notable Findings: Most training in soft skills comes with experience and observation once the candidate enters the internship/residency phases
Mental Model Diagrams: Visualizing Data
Mental Model Diagrams chronologically order the “path to becoming a physician.” On the bottom I placed services and processes where a candidate would pick up soft skills needed to become an effective physician.
Marked areas (lightning bolts) show where there is a lack of services to identify potential areas to implement a design solution. Due to other restraints, such as user access, I ultimately chose the pre-med phase to implement a solution.
*Lightning bolts signify empty areas where a new product or service can be implemented with little/no competition.
Translating Research to Design
After determining that a solution would work best when targeting aspiring physicians in the pre-med/undergraduate phase, I worked on creating what type of design solution would be most effective.
Mind map exercise to design table of contents and flow of the notebook
Cover Design and Inside Pages
Muted color scheme so notebooks are unnoticeable when used during clinical shadowing or volunteering.
Future Applications
Distribution: Give to freshmen undergraduates upon first visit to Health Profession Advising Office (HPAO), alongside other introduction materials like course curriculum, and volunteer/shadowing/research requirement checklists, and conduct a longitudinal study of the effectiveness of the notebook.
User Testing: Analytics will focus on testing effectiveness of design solution at improving physician bedside manner and empathy. Methods include unmoderated surveys and moderated interviews with users. Other factors, such as aesthetic quality or ease of use will also be tested. To be conducted post-social distancing.
Additional Features
Future Improvements: Creating subsequent editions of the guided notebook, tailormade to each phase in the path to medicine (eg. during medical school, for gap years, during internships, residency, fellowships, and more). This solution can also be expanded to full-suite programs, with additional courses, group-based activities, and worldwide connection.
Translating Physical Notebook to Digital Ledger: While a physical notebook is useful to carry and add notes to, it can be easily lost or discarded. Creating a digital version, similar to web or mobile apps such as Notion, could increase long-term usage. Future iterations of this design should be tested out in a digital format.