hope akello | ubc pharmacists clinic

UBC Pharmacists Clinic

Designing services and interfaces to support patient-centered care.

Overview

CLIENT

ROLE

Service Designer and UX Lead; I facilitated stakeholder engagement, led the research and prototyping process, and supported the clinic through technology integration.

PROBLEMS

The clinic’s digital tools were not fully aligned with the evolving needs of pharmacists or the range of services offered, leading to workarounds and added administrative load.

SOLUTIONS

A suite of digital tools and service improvements to reduce administrative workload, improve communication, and enhance the overall patient care experience.

Impact

Led redesign of 5+ core clinical processes, including appointment booking, patient communication, and EMR workflows; improving efficiency and reducing administrative load.
Developed and implemented a new patient intake system that decreased appointment booking time by 30% and minimized back-and-forth between staff and patients.
Reduced appointment no-show rates by 25% through implementation of improved reminder and confirmation workflows.
Introduced 3 new tools for virtual patient support, video conferencing, and appointment confirmations, improving continuity of care during remote visits.
Redesigned clinic website architecture and content flow, resulting in a 45% increase in user engagement and improved accessibility for patients.
Integrated WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards into all digital touchpoints to support inclusive access for patients with disabilities.
Mentored pharmacy students and clinical staff on human-centered design practices to support long-term innovation in care delivery.

Projects

The UBC Pharmacists Clinic is a university-affiliated, pharmacist-led patient care clinic. At the Clinic, the clinicians use their specialized knowledge in medication to support the care of medically complex patients.

As Healthcare Service Designer for the clinic, I worked to improve the clinical processes and patient experience by integrating new technologies and streamlining digital interactions. I led the service and UX design processes, collaborating closely with clinicians, administrators, and external stakeholders to deliver solutions. My contributions spanned research, design, implementation, and mentorship, resulting in a more efficient and user-friendly experience for patients and staff alike. Below is a snapshot of a few projects I worked on.

Appointment Booking Process

Context

In 2023, a new provincial initiative allowed pharmacists in British Columbia to prescribe medications for 21 minor ailments and contraceptives. In response, the clinic needed to update its appointment booking process to include minor ailment and contraceptive (MAC) appointments.

Objective

Allow patients to book MAC appointments online, including the ability to specify the condition they needed care for.

Approach

Discovery: Mapped current patient booking journey using interviews and service blueprints
Synthesis: Identified pain points including unclear next steps, duplicate data entry, and lack of appointment visibility
Design: Prototyped an online form with conditional logic and accessibility best practices (e.g. label clarity, keyboard navigation)
Testing & Iteration: Presented the Figma prototype to staff and refined based on their feedback

Outcomes

A service blueprint showing existing pain points
A new booking flow prototype in Figma
Recommendations document outlining integration opportunities

Context

OSCAR is a open-source electronic medical records (EMR) system. At the UBC Pharmacists Clinic, staff used it daily, but found many interface elements inefficient, cluttered, or unintuitive. This project involved proposing small but meaningful UX/UI improvements to better support their clinical workflow.

Objective

Improve UI

Approach

Observation: Shadowed clinicians using OSCAR in context
Pain Point Mapping: Gathered examples of frequent mis-clicks, navigation issues, or unclear fields
pain point mapping
design
Dev Handoff: Created a rationale and mock up for developer, met with developer to communicate multiple enhancement requests

Outcomes

Recommendations document outlining integration opportunities

Context

A Drug Therapy Problem (DTP) happens when something about a medication—how it’s taken, how the body reacts, or how it’s prescribed—causes an issue. DTPs take many forms—missing doses, developing a tolerance, or adverse reactions like rashes—and arise when medication use or non-use affects how well the patient recovers or manages their condition.

Objective

The goal of this project was to design a digital tool to help pharmacists track and manage DTPs as they emerged in patient care. The intent was to centralize and simplify this documentation, and develop a tool specific to the needs of a pharmacist since OSCAR was designed for doctors not pharmacists.

Approach

Observation: Shadowed clinicians using OSCAR in context
Pain Point Mapping: Gathered examples of frequent mis-clicks, navigation issues, or unclear fields
Design: Prototyped an online form with conditional logic and accessibility best practices (e.g. label clarity, keyboard navigation)

Outcomes

Lo-fi wireframes and early sketches exploring how DTPs might be categorized and tracked
A clickable mockup with filtering features and entry fields
Notes from early stakeholder meetings and user flow attempts