NEHTA National eHealth Transition Authority

eHealth Records for all Australians

Ongoing work with NEHTA supporting the implementation of national e-Health records programme. Several engagements including user interface and user experience improvements to off-the-shelf product. Working with colleagues at NEHTA Sydney, the National Implementation Partner (Accenture) and software vendor (Orion) to drive usability and UX improvements for both clinical and citizen facing apps. Bringing consistency and end-to-end design to amalgamated systems with UI inconsistencies as well as reaching out beyond application itself to support UX and consistency in marketing & comms and digital pathways. Supported usability testing and led usability improvements within overall programme delivery schedules.

Bringing harmony and alignment

PROBLEM

Business challenge: As with the UK national health records implementation, there are many large and established organisations working on Australian eHealth records programme. Work packages are typically siloed, with little or no focus on cohesion or user experience. A Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) product had been purchased to deliver the UI. Additionally, the syndicate based sign-up process was managed through a different government agency and was particularly long-winded and complex. Reaching out to influence contributing and sometimes competing partners required tact and diplomacy
Technical challenge: Many technical considerations in implementation of national scale. The app draws on disparate data sources and operates within different security environments. Understanding and designing for opportunities and limitations of technical implementation was a big part of the challenge.
Human challenge: We needed to bring consistency and harmony to the end user experience and ensure app met clinical safety standards and WCAG accessibility guidelines

PROCESS

Establishing shared vision for end-to-end app functionality was critical. This started by creating an overall map of current system and identifying gaps and opportunities for harmonising the UX, consulting with clinical and business stakeholders then moved onto working with implementation and COTS partner to deliver improvements. Some main activities:

UI improvements to the Consolidated View.
Presentations to senior clinicians and national strategic stakeholder groups
End-to-end and UX harmonising.
Improvements to signup process, introduction of modal overlay to anchor users in multi-step process.
Management of UI branding and implementation. Driving UI and messaging consistency out to marketing and comms
Key member of partner driven usability taskforce, defining, driving and tracking usability improvements. Usability reporting.
Delivery of artefacts, observation and support of usability testing
Supporting clinical programme leadership with visual artefacts, aligned scenarios and click-thru prototypes
Working closely with implementation partner to craft CDA layout

ROLE: Lead UX Consultant, working very with NEHTA project team, PMs, BA, TAs coordinating with build partner team (Accenture) and liaising with COTS partner to implement UI changes. Reaching out to other government organisations controlling syndicate login, signup, security management.