Ensuring better patient outcomes through precise dose calculation
Neurologists often face challenges calculating in accurately dosages for complex indications such as spasticity, tending to under-dose due to concerns about adverse effects, resulting in suboptimal patient outcomes. I led the initial design of the OnADose App, to enable neurologists to create dosing plans more confidently and improve treatment efficacy. This work lead to a 32% reduction in the time required to complete dose calculations and a 9% increase in monthly active users during the first year.
Delivering positive outcomes
Despite the constraints of being unable to use marketing to gain app exposure, the usage has been increasing slowly and steadily since the launch in December 2022 through word of mouth with neurologists.
What was I able to accomplish?
- Delivered the visual and interaction design for both iOS and Android using React Native in four months, which lead to significant adoption among neurologists.
- Simplified the nature of dosing by developing an intuitive interface that removed the need for manual calculations.
- The app led to faster preparation times for patient visits, contributing to improved efficiency in clinical settings.
“The OnADose App has helped bridge the gap between knowledge and application when I’m training residents and fellows.”
– Neurologist
Dosing complexity creates provider hesitancy
To calculate a proper dose, a physician uses the Prescribing Information (PI), the go-to resource for guidance on the application and use of any drug. To do this, they must reference:
Dosing accuracy is paramount to patient safety and the efficacy of treatment. Manual calculations increase the risk of inconsistencies and clinical inertia in practice can lead to suboptimal outcomes without guardrails to catch unintended errors.
Where the PI would remain the source of truth, the medical affairs team wanted to augment that resource with a new digital application that could become an accessible, everyday tool that enabled physicians to create dosing plans with the most up-to-date information at their fingertips.
“What we learned from real world studies and EHR records is many indications were often under-dosed and when we reached out to physicians many noted a lack of awareness and proper education on effective treatments”
– Abbvie Medical Affairs employee
Activities
Physicians dose very different from one another
In a market where you have both new and experienced physicians applying Botox, the level of education and practice varied wildly based on knowledge, experience, and even the current situation amid the COVID-19 pandemic when the project took place.
These varied practices included differences in the way they reconstitute, planning doses, and new variables like needle availability due to supply chain issues.
I documented the broader scope of treatment, identifying additional opportunities that needed more exploration. While we wanted to explore many areas, we had to focus on creating dosing plans, which we found to be more complex than it appeared.
Activities
Outlining the design treatment
Due to the timeline we had, immediately following our discovery phase, I got to work on a low-fidelity design + prototype that helped us build a hypothesis for the proposed direction. The product owner and I worked collaboratively with the insights from my interviews to build out the initial vision.
After some follow-up calls with physicians to review the prototype, the direction I designed resonated well. We got some interesting insight into some additional professional practice that helped us adjust dose configuration
Leveraging core Abbvie brand standards, I explored a couple different variations of visual direction, landing on the final direction that was ultimately shipped.
Activities
Reflection
The OnADose app launched in December 2022 to neurologists and care teams in the United States. The AbbVie medical affairs team is continuously inviting new users to the app and new updates are planned for 2024.
...Josh helped us challenge key assumptions and shared my high standards for exceptional user experience. He kept the bar high for our development team and I am very proud of the product we built together!
In addition to his talents for design, I will always look back fondly on our collaboration and would love the opportunity to work with him again
– Brandon Ezell, AbbVie