Challenge  

Diagnosing and treating rare diseases is a complex task that often presents barriers. The MYO-MRI consortium, a dedicated group of healthcare professionals focused on rare conditions, was limited by an outdated method of sharing crucial patient images and data. In 2019, vital images were still being transported physically on CDs, causing substantial delays and potential risks to patient data. 

Moreover, the lack of a unified platform combining genetic diagnosis, imaging pathology and muscle MRI images added to the challenge. This technology gap wasn’t exclusive to neuromuscular diseases but extended to many other disorders as well. 

Solution  

Emids, a trailblazer in healthcare technology solutions, collaborated with the Ottawa Hospital and the MYO-MRI consortium to create MYO-SHARE, a novel, cloud-based platform. This platform facilitates more efficient collaboration among clinicians working on rare diseases. Utilizing the robust framework of Emids’ HealthConnect platform and hosted on Azure, MYO-SHARE was designed using existing backend components, enabling fast deployment of this transformative tool. 

MYO-SHARE offers a secure platform for storing and reviewing patient images, with utmost respect for ethical laws and patient confidentiality. It also simplifies the sharing of intricate patient images with colleagues across the globe. In addition, MYO-SHARE has the unique capability of integrating genetic diagnosis, imaging pathology and muscle MRI images. 

Built-in data security and user management layers in the Emids HealthConnect platform ensure that MYO-SHARE is secure. By using previously tested and deployed components, the platform is not only reliable but efficient. 

Results  

MYO-SHARE’s successful implementation has significantly improved physicians and scientists’ ability to diagnose and assess the impact of therapeutic trials for patients with rare diseases. Its secure and user-friendly interface allows healthcare professionals to collaborate seamlessly, sharing complex patient images in real-time. 

The cloud-based platform not only speeds up the diagnostic process but also enhances patient outcomes. MYO-SHARE’s transformative role also extends to other diseases, showcasing its wider applicability. 

The joint efforts of the Ottawa Hospital, the MYO-MRI consortium and Emids have resulted in MYO-SHARE becoming a groundbreaking tool for the diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases globally. This is a testament to Emids’ commitment to leveraging existing and emerging technologies to make a meaningful impact on healthcare. 

Challenge

Our client, a full-service Third-Party Administrator (TPA), serving a significant number of lives across multiple employer groups, faced a series of operational and technological challenges. Their growth strategy, involving the acquisition of multiple TPAs, led to a decentralized and siloed IT landscape, resulting in increased operational costs and complex data management. Their outdated legacy web portal for population health management was inefficient, leading to missed performance benchmarks in clinical case management and quality outcomes.

Moreover, the disparate systems and data structures across TPAs resulted in scalability issues, lengthy data load times, and relied heavily on manual processes. This resulted in non-uniform models and structures, thereby affecting data quality and trust.

Solution

To solve these challenges, we partnered with the client to undertake a series of transformative initiatives aimed at improving operational efficiency and service delivery.

Unified Data Platform (UDP)

Recognizing the difficulties posed by data management across multiple TPAs, we embarked on a project to create a unified data platform. The goal was to consolidate, rationalize and standardize data assets, effectively creating a single, comprehensive source of truth for business intelligence and analytics. The process involved careful planning, design and development, ensuring that the new platform could seamlessly integrate data from the various systems and formats previously in use.

Population Preventive Care (PPC)

To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the client’s disease management processes, we developed a new product offering named PPC. This initiative was based on the existing Disease Management (DM) care gaps addressal process but aimed to provide a more robust and comprehensive solution. A critical part of this project was the development of a new multi-tenant clinical portal. Built using Design Led Engineering, this portal integrated all necessary member data in a single, user-friendly interface, greatly enhancing the efficiency of case managers and nurses.

Online Portal 2.0

Alongside these specific projects, we also recognized the need for a comprehensive, unified platform for various client services. We worked closely with the client to understand their specific needs and goals, leading to the development of a new portal integrated with the UDP. This platform, dubbed “Online Portal 2.0”, was designed to be highly intuitive and user-friendly, providing a seamless experience for both the client and their customers.

Payment Gateway Integration

Recognizing the importance of a seamless payment process, we integrated the client’s online platform with a payment processing solution. This project required careful coordination with various stakeholders and thorough testing to ensure secure, reliable operation. The result was a significantly improved user experience, empowering patients and members to make payments easily and securely.

Throughout these initiatives, we provided staffing services and implemented Agile project management methodologies. This approach ensured efficient project planning, tracking and reporting, and it allowed us to adapt and respond to any challenges or changes that arose during the projects.

Outcomes

The partnership led to significant positive outcomes. The creation of the Unified Data Platform resulted in a single, trustworthy source of data for all TPAs. This improved scalability and significantly reduced data load times, thereby overcoming one of the major challenges the client was facing. The new PPC product offering and the development of a clinical portal increased the productivity of case managers and nurses. By providing comprehensive member data in a single location, it became easier to identify care gaps, conduct screenings and provide preventative care.

The user experience was also enhanced by integrating the payment gateway, which facilitated easier and more streamlined payment processes. The engagement showed steady growth, starting with a small team and expanding to a large team with a high retention rate. This growth was accompanied by multiple successful releases, including the rollout of the new online portal, improved messaging and other feature enhancements.

This engagement exemplifies a comprehensive digital transformation journey, highlighting the immense value that strategic partnerships can deliver in overcoming complex operational and technological challenges.

Emids worked with a top Fortune 500 payer organization, which aims to empower their over 100m members to live healthier lives.

The organization wanted to complement its care advisors with a high touch, digital concierge experience for families experiencing complex care needs regardless of their health plans. The objective was to free up space for the provider and specialty-care practices so they could focus on care delivery and member health.

Through continued collaboration with the client team, Emids delivered a UX Playbook to serve as a reference point for product decisions going forward, including research findings and recommendations and design decisions. Emids also delivered two prototypes to reference for the MVP and Beyond the MVP work, highlighting key service design considerations as the project continues into the build phase.

Availity, a benefits and claims management platform, facilitates over 4 billion clinical, administrative and financial transactions annually for their payer & provider network.

Facing market pressure from customers and competitors, Availity wanted to take a blue sky approach and reimagine their provider portal to reduce the overhead that resulted in calls to support. They turned to Emids for their design-led approach to product creation.

Emids and the Availity product team worked to ideate, research, and deliver on an experience prototype, initially solving for a narrow slice of the workflows that could be scaled to the entire platform. 

With an advisory committee, composed of existing end users spanning organization size and specialty, the Emids team implemented an agile, iterative design and research framework that allowed for the quick creation of design concepts that could be tested with end users before the next iteration.

The final experience design was delivered in the form of a clickable Invision prototype.

End users were delighted by the reimagined portal experience, remarking how quickly and frictionless formerly confusing processes were made, which will no doubt reduce the need for phone calls to health plans for support.

Fresenius Medical Care is the world’s leading provider of products and services for people with chronic kidney failure. The company wanted to gain a deeper understanding of a major client group—nephrologists—and to apply the insight in developing solutions to address their needs.

In partnership with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the United States, Fresenius Medical Care has furthered its innovation goals through tight coordination between dialysis clinics, nephrology practices and care-coordination staff. This operating model has improved patient outcomes and clinical quality, while reducing total cost of care for patients.

Opportunity

Nephrologists work in many locations and on multiple technology platforms. Fresenius Medical Care needed to observe these professionals up close, and wanted to work with an external company to get an unbiased study from an independent perspective. Enter Emids. Collaborative, efficient and with a team of highly experienced observational researchers, Emids possessed an impressive portfolio of healthcare clients and industry knowledge.

Project Detail

On-site Workshops

We conducted workshops before and after conducting research to ensure both teams were aligned.

Ethnographic Research

Research was conducted in 6 US Cities to give Fresenius an unbiased independent perspective.

Journey Maps

2 journey maps created to highlight insights gained from observing the team of nephrologists.

Persona Creation

4 different personas which profile archetypes of various members of the nephrology care team.

Approach

Emids began by holding a workshop with Fresenius Medical Care to understand project goals. Deliverables included journey maps that would chart a nephrologist’s workday in detail. Emids and Fresenius Medical Care then designed the research plan and protocols. Fresenius Medical Care wanted to rotate different staff in and out of the research team, so Emids prepared field kits to help inexperienced researchers get up to speed quickly.

The research team sat down with nephrologists prior to each session to discuss the upcoming day. During the session, researchers quietly observed and took notes, asking questions when appropriate and non-intrusive.

Privacy was paramount. Only patients who gave explicit permission would be observed. The team also blurred out identifiable features and information in all imagery, even if the patient had agreed to have their image recorded.

Following each interview, the researchers summarized the day’s minute-by-minute observations into meaningful, usable data. After the research was completed, Emids and Fresenius Medical Care team members reunited for a two-day workshop to analyze the results.

Results

Emids completed the project on budget and within a tight timeframe. Although the actual content of the research and findings is confidential, Fresenius Medical Care considered it invaluable, with significant strategic implications. Fresenius Medical Care also found the work offered an important opportunity to engage its clients and give them an end-to-end view of product development.

Siemens Healthineers set out to design a new ultrasound machine with Sonographers ease of use in mind. Emids was brought in to help Siemens determine if they met their goal.

Inexpensive, portable and non-invasive, ultrasound systems provide valuable, real-time insight into patients’ bodies. However, hard-to-use equipment can compromise scan quality, regardless of a sonographer’s expertise.

Opportunity

Siemens Healthineers spent time and money creating a new product to bridge this ultrasound usability gap. Then, the company seized on Emids digital technology experience and proven user-experience insight to conduct an objective third-party usability assessment to gauge the new product’s success.

Approach

Emids screened and recruited sonographers to operate the new system in a simulated clinical environment. During the test, researchers collected standard usability data and measured task success, error rates and deviations from the expected process. They also gathered ease-of-use ratings and qualitative feedback following each task. Results were presented in accordance with ISO/IEC 25062:2006 Common Industry Format for Usability Test Reports.

Results

The final report validated Siemens’ trust in its new product. Specifically, Emids found that the new equipment:

• Improved user satisfaction
• Reduced overall errors
• Showed high task completion rate
• Generated fewer deviations
• Resulted in high scores for ease of use

The clear evidence of enhanced usability empowered Siemens’ ultrasound sales team when pitching to new and existing clients. Yet the greater value of Emids work for Siemens may be in identifying potential improvements that would further enhance usability in the next generation of ultrasound equipment.

The My Diabetes Coach solution is designed to improve and strengthen the teamwork between parent and child in diabetes management. Establishing and encouraging good practices and patient compliance at an early stage will provide significant benefits to the patients over the years by mitigating the complications that can result from non-compliance.

Most diabetes management solutions on the market today function as logbooks for keeping track of blood glucose levels and some connect to Bluetooth enabled glucometers to make the collection of this data quite simple. However, as anyone with diabetes knows, the measurement of blood glucose levels alone do not paint the entire picture of your condition or your progress towards meeting goals set by your clinician. Diet, exercise, sleep, stress, body weight, and medication compliance all play an important role in mitigating the impacts of the disease but these can be daunting to manage for anyone suffering from diabetes, let alone a youth or young adult recently diagnosed.

Along with contributions from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Healthwise, & the University of Ottawa, we’ve developed a diabetes care management solution that builds upon the features of many logbook applications as part of a larger, more holistic solution that gains context from multiple devices and patient data to help youth with type 2 diabetes better manage their care.

At its core, My Diabetes Coach is a cloud application that leverages a companion mobile app to collect data from a variety of connected devices like sleep trackers, weight scales, blood glucose monitors, and patient-centered data like daily food intake. The cloud application also pulls data from Healthwise, a rich library of content for both physicians and patients on managing various diseases, and converts it into a format that will lend itself well to providing guidance to the patient. The Alexa skill makes entering data quick and easy, while also allowing the patient to ask questions about their daily targets or for help with food choices to keep them on track.

My Diabetes Coach in Practice

Clinicians and parents play an important role in setting specific goals and objectives for a diabetic patient to achieve and to reinforce those goals and objectives, but they are often not enough. My Diabetes Coach complements and enhances the initiatives of the clinician and members of the patient’s circle of care. The voice interface is used to provide access to typically asked questions and is used to improve patient engagement by making patient information that much more efficient to capture or access.

Through elements of gamification, the voice skill can also encourage and reward patients who are monitoring and managing their care effectively while providing advice and guidance to those that are struggling. The conversational user experience developed for the skill is designed to establish a relationship with the patient and provide guidance and mentorship as a trusted coach would. By understanding the patient’s context and integrating an AI engine to deliver relevant and empathetic responses to voice queries, the solution provides customized care for each user according to their specific needs.

How Did We Build It?

My Diabetes Coach is built upon Emids proprietary application-development system called Hive. Hive takes a backend as a service (BaaS) approach and aggregates common pre-built microservices, or cells, that include authentication, authorization, data storage modeling, notifications, and background processing.

The solution is comprised of a custom developed mobile application that runs on both iOS and Android and provides direct connection to Bluetooth enabled devices (such as a weight scale, blood glucometer, Fitbit or other wearables), allowing the patient to record the necessary information from wherever they are located. The mobile application integrates with Alexa via AVS calls to enable access to the MyCoach skill when the patient is out of the house.

The Alexa Skill and mobile application are supported by a cloud-based backend application that communicates directly to the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) and provides data storage for any patient information. Patient Health Information (PHI) is stored separately from other data in a manner that ensures HIPAA compliance.

The MyCoach Alexa skill is integrated into the cloud application so that it can leverage data collected from the mobile application and patient portal (and stored in a common database) to provide customized responses according to how well the patient is managing their care and according to the specific goals set by the clinician.

The My Diabetes Coach solution is designed to improve and strengthen the teamwork between parent and child in diabetes management. Establishing and encouraging good practices and patient compliance at an early stage will provide significant benefits to the patients over the years by mitigating the complications that can result from non-compliance.