Rapid Response to Regulatory Shifts
Simplifying ODT Medication Supply for Pharmacists Nationwide
Legislation changes to PBS Opioid Dependency Therapy (ODT) medication caused significant duplication of tasks for pharmacists.
Previously, doctors could prescribe a single script for a 10mg dose of Suboxone which would be comprised of two products (1 x 8mg Film and 1 x 2mg Film). However, the changes now require the products to be written as separate scripts. Consequently, the pharmacist supplying the same patient with their weekly supply of their 10mg daily dose of Suboxone, has supply the 8mg film seven times and then the 2mg Film seven times. This doubles the clicks required, posing a significant time burden on already busy pharmacists.
With only a months notice before these changes took effect our development timeline was significantly shortened in order to minimize the amount of time our customers were impacted. To tackle this challenge, I needed to optimize the workflow for supplying ODT medication quickly!
Unique Challenges
-
Pharmacist’s duplication of tasks significantly increased the risk of supplying a patient incorrectly.
-
Due to the increase risk of errors, I needed to bring a solution to market quickly.
-
Example: +30 clicks in order to supply a patient with a monthly supply of their medication! (This would double to 60+ after the PBS changes!!!)
-
Different modal supply window for every individual dose.
-
Pharmacists are inundated with information which creates mental clutter and a risk of medication errors.
I was the lead UIUX resource on this six-month project. On this project, I…
Collaborated with Industry Professionals to fully understand the scope and impact of PBS changes for pharmacists and their clients including pharmacists and pharmacy owners
Created user flow diagrams and prototypes with the help of Project Manager and Technical Lead
Validated prototypes through user testing as well as mid-sprint reviews with internal stakeholders
Lead focus group sessions to gain further feedback
Created high-fidelity design prototypes using the product design system I cultivated across my previous two years with StrongRoom AI
User flow diagrams are my home base when working with varying dose types, clinical restrictions, and near limitless scheduling configurations.
While the PBS changes proposed a new layer of complexity to supplying, I understood the basic workflow when supplying ODT medication. This allowed me to focus on how I was going to combine multiple scripts of the same drug into one seamless action. If pharmacists could supply them together in a single window, it would save time by removing excessive clicks as well as eliminate the duplication of tasks to reduce the high risk of supplying errors!
Once the user flow diagram was signed off, I jumped into design ideation.
Supply Window
Pharmacists have a lot of data points they must refer to when they are supplying medication. In order to keep that information legible and concise, I opted to create a dosing table sorted by dosing date and script where each script is shown as a single row.
Summary Page
This workflow was completed by a final summary page to allow them to input supply notes, select label type, and view a list of patient’s dosage each day and products supplied.
I ran two focus group sessions:
Overall, we had positive feedback about the simplification of the new process the overwhelming response was that we needed to streamline the workflow even further.
-
Pharmacists are extremely time-poor and extra clicks lengthens workflow, they challenged us to reduce the clicks even further than we already had.
-
The dosing table showing individual scripts rather than by dosing day was too confusing.
-
While helpful, users thought the summary didn’t warrant an additional window.
The Solution
-
Pharmacist can bulk supply all their doses in one window, rather than a window for every individual dose.
-
Pharmacists only see the information they MUST need in order to supply.
-
Should an issue arise when dosing, a pharmacist can drill down, investigate, and adjust their supply.
What’s the impact?