hope akello

UBC Pharmacists Clinic test

Designing services and interfaces to support patient-centered care.

UX / UI

Service Design

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Overview

CLIENT

The UBC Pharmacists Clinic🡭

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 the 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.

Context

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, developers, 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.

Major Projects

Context

In 2023, a provincial initiative enabled pharmacists in British Columbia to prescribe medications for 21 minor ailments and contraceptives (MAC). The clinic needed to adapt its appointment booking process to accommodate these new services.

Objective

Enable patients to book MAC appointments online and indicate which of the 21 minor ailments or contraceptives they need support with.

Approach

Service Blueprint: collaborated with clinicians to determine which ailments required in-person versus virtual diagnosis. Developed a service blueprint of both the patient-facing and admin processes to identify which information needed to be documented for government billing.


Journey Mapping: created journey maps of patient, clinician, and admin workflows to identify pain points and opportunities in the new booking process.


Information Architecture: visualized the information architecture of the new booking tool and prototyped an online form with conditional logic and accessibility best practices (e.g. label clarity, keyboard navigation)


Wireframing: designed wireframes for the new booking screens and collaborated with leadership to refine language, ensuring patients clearly understood the minor ailments and service offerings.


Testing & Iteration: presented the Figma prototype to the team and refined based on their feedback.

Outcomes

Service blueprint showing existing pain points.

Figma prototypes of booking process with documented rationale for IT department and developers.

Documentation of the new billing process for the clinic's administration team.

Results

A streamlined online booking process that enabled patients to specify their reason for appointment. This reduced administrative workload, specifically back-and-forth between staff and patients, with the clinic reporting fewer front desk phone calls in the first quarter.

Context

Staff at the UBC Pharmacists Clinic relied on OSCAR, an open-source electronic medical records system (EMR), but often faced usability issues that slowed down their workflow.

Objectives

Identify key pain points in day-to-day operations, redesign EMR interface components, and provide leadership on technology integration and process improvement initiatives.

Approach

User Shadowing: observed clinician and medical office assistants' use of OSCAR during appointments, noting navigation issues.


User Interviews: conducted interviews with clinicians after appointments to have them map their daily EMR workflows, capture frustrations, and collaboratively sketch ideas.


Interface Redesign: ideated and refined solutions in Figma; simplified cluttered layouts, improved visual hierarchy, and proposed clearer navigation for key clinical tasks.


User Testing & Feedback: gathered clinician and developer feedback through prototype walkthroughs, refined designs based on insights. Acted as a bridge between clinicians and developers; advocated for clinician needs while also communicating technical constraints.


Design Handoff: finalized mockups, delivered design handoff documentation, and reviewed implementation details with developers.


Project Coordination: communicated progress and system updates with the team and coordinated with developers to track and resolve reported issues.

Outcomes

Design rationales
Concept sketches
Figma mock ups

Results

Eight major UI enhancements to the OSCAR EMR system over two years, directly informed by clinic staff and developer feedback.

Context

The OSCAR EMR was built for physicians, whose workflow differs significantly from pharmacists. As a result, pharmacists at the clinic lacked a dedicated way to record, track, and resolve drug therapy problems (DTPs)—issues that compremise patient outcomes.

Objective

Design an integrated digital tool that extends OSCAR’s capabilities to support pharmacists in efficiently identifying, documenting, and managing DTPs throughout patient care.

Approach

User Shadowing and Task Analysis


Environment Scan and System Audit


Research Synthesis


Journey Mapping


Lo-fi Wireframing


Think-Aloud User Testing


Documentation

Outcomes

Results