AP UX Week '07: ClearRx: From Masters Thesis to Medicine Cabinet
[Live Blogged Notes from Adaptive Path UX Week 2007. ClearRx: From Masters Thesis to Medicine Cabinet]
Deborah Adler's grandmother opened her medicine cabinet and accidentally took her granfather's medicine. Deborah was looking for a thesis topic and was deeply concerned about this problem.
As she investigated, she discovered that the problem is widespread. 60% of Americans don't take their medications properly.
The number of prescriptions filled each year is approximately 10 per person in America.
As she collected and studied standard pharmaceutical bottles, she discovered that information is hard to understand. Not just poor print quality but the wraparound label is hard to read. Misalignment is common, orange warning labels are hard to read on orange bottles, and black text is often placed on dark colored warning labels. Warnings like "Do Not Take With Nitrates" beg the question: "What is a nitrate?"
The elaborate information that comes with the prescription is poorly designed. They average 22 word per line (far more than the optimal 9-12) and the type is tiny.
The first issue Deborah attacked was the label itself.
Information was hard to read and often meant nothing to patients. She pulled out what she calls "primary information" and put it at the top of the label. This is what the patient wants to know first. Nothing can infringe on this space. This includes:
- Patient Name
- Medicine name
- Dosage strength
- Directions
- Purpose
Secondary information is displayed below.
- Doctor's name and information
- Refill information
She intended this as a universal label so that, regardless of pharmacy, a patient would always have the same label organized the same way.
She then used colors to personalize the medicine for each member of the household. This alone would have stopped her grandmother from taking her grandfathers medication.
She then made the bottle with a flat back and curved front. The front had the instructions and the back had the instructions.
She wanted to design the bottles so that at a glance you could see:
- Who it is for
- When it should be taken
- How it should be taken
She also added a magnifying lens to the back to make it easier for people to read.
While she was doing research, she attended a meeting at the Conde Nast building. When she got home, she realized that her badge had developed red lines 24 hours later.
She looked into this technology and discovered that the woman who invented it actually attended her grandmother's synagogue.
Once her prototype was ready she took it to the FDA hoping for a federal standard. While the FDA was supportive, their hands were tied.
So she decided to go to a national pharmacy and Target just made sense. Design is in their DNA
She felt that Target would be more willing to take a risk with this innovation.
Target took on the idea and Deborah. The ClearRX system that emerged involved the design of the bottle, the label, etc. It is designed for human interaction. The bottle is easy to hold and consumers can get easy information at a glance.
The idea for color coded labels was translated into color coded rings attached to the bottle. This provides another line of defense against taking medicine intended for someone else.
Information on the label is presented with a clear hierarchy. The name of the drug is listed big and bold at the top.
As she was designing the final label, she had to design 28 variations to accommodate state regulations. She redesigned the patient education sheet and was able to add a magnifying lens by inserting both behind the label on the bottle.
The system also had to be designed for the pharmacists to use.
The final label is actually 8.5×14. She worked with a producer to plan all of the details. The sheet holds all of the information, required new printers for all Target pharmacies, and there is a binder to hold an archive of information.
She worked with Milton Glaser to update all of the icons.
One of the most popular innovations is the spill-proof bottle for liquid. A user inserts an included syringe into the bottle to extract the medicine.
When the system was launched, Deborah was commended by the Surgeon General. The system also received coverage in New York magazine. This profile told the story from the designers point of view. They have also received a number of awards.
More importantly, user feedback has been outstanding.
This system cost Target a substantial amount of money but they are not passing these costs onto their customers.
[Questions]
Q: To what degree did your education prepare you for having to work with the sticky issues of reality?
A: This was all about research. Exploring the industry, etc. This is why it uses a standard label size for printing.
Q: What other things are you looking to improve?
A: There is a bottomless pit in the healthcare industry. Currently working with nurses to better apply wound care dressings.
Q: How did sustainability play into this?
A: There's cradle-to-cradle and then there are smaller steps. She just pitched Target on switching to biodegradable bottles. The plastic they use must meet certain standards. The bottle is recyclable but it is red and that is a problem for recycling.
Q: What about colorblind patients?
A: Not sure. The only way around that is for the colorblind person to choose a color they can see.
Q: What about state-to-state?
A: There is one label that has everything on it and 23 variations that remove what isn't required by states.
Q: Elaborate on the back-end?
A: Drug description information comes from somewhere else and had to be integrated to Target technology. Didn't change wording, just positioning. Then worked with Target training operations to develop a training program.
It was hard to get the individual pharmacists on board. The Target pharmacy team was interested but the staff on the floor were resistant to change until they saw how popular the program was. The project was actually taken on by the VP for Medical programs ({sf}: not sure of the actual department name)
Q: Business impact?
A: Significant improvement in market share.
Q: Which icon is the hardest?
A: For external use only.
Q: Did work on how many times a day a person must take medicine?
A: Currently working on this issue. It's called compliance. How do you remember that you remembered?
The first solution was numbers on the rings. You would turn the ring. But then how do remember that you turned it?
Q: Are Walmart of CVS doing this?
A: Sold the patents to Target but she hopes that others will take it on. FDA is actually looking at developing a universal label.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: AP UX Week '07: ClearRx: From Masters Thesis to Medicine Cabinet.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.samfelder.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/300
Who is this guy?
Leave a comment