— Christina Ho is a design researcher and boba enthusiast in the Bay Area
Telehealth & Remote Patient Monitoring
During the pandemic, most health practices moved to a telehealth/remote care model. There was growing interest and better infrastructure to establish a longer term remote care model, and to pursue more advanced remote care options. Diabetes care is primed for connecting remotely over data, but because the remote care model hadn't been widely implemented before, we had to evaluate how our strategy would shift. Using generative research, I uncovered different types of remote care models and informed strategy for the company. This is a sample of the work done.
- Company
- Glooko
- Role
- Staff UX Researcher
- Method
- One-on-one provider interviews
- Participants
- 8 providers
Context
Glooko is a tool for providers and patients to view diabetes data. It helps endocrinology and primary care visits become more data-based, with more specificity.
This project was one in a series planned to build a strong foundation of insights into the provider space. I would then partner with designers to bring those insights into specific areas of the product.
Approach
I did exploratory research with providers in RPM programs who monitor patients with Type 1 and/or Type 2 diabetes, using one-on-one interviews to learn about their practices and the programs they belong to.
We recruited through UserInterviews, Sermo (a professional provider recruiting agency) and Account Management. We interviewed three Sharp Rees-Stealy providers and five RPM providers across the US. I processed the sessions with Reduct and Miro, producing clear findings and a journey map to ideate from.
Journey maps
Journey maps of a co-located visit and a telehealth visit show the steps, people and tools involved in each.
Telehealth and RPM are different
Telehealth means quarterly visits to a PCP or endocrinologist, plus any activity to prepare for that visit. Remote patient monitoring means checking in on patients frequently, with or without data, outside of those visits. Defining the two clearly gave the team a shared language.
Findings: three stages of an RPM program
Enrolling
- Providers reach out to patients, often those with an A1C over 8.5–9, and PCP referrals help
- Goals are set, usually around A1C
- Devices are set up, but most patients lack education on using them
- An ongoing PCP connection is made
Day to day
- A task-based routine: 30-day check-ins, sync check-ins, and outlier readings
- Outliers trigger calls, usually due to equipment error or gaps in care education
- Provider–patient contact is largely verbal; provider–PCP contact runs through reports
Graduating
- Providers evaluate the patient's health and data to date
- Patients leave when they reach their goals, or when they are non-responsive or non-compliant
- The evaluation looks at all care received, not just RPM reports
Insights for product and strategy
Diabetes care is qualitative
Data opens the conversation, but visits turn on encouragement and motivational interviewing.
Recent readings and outliers matter most
Providers use outliers as the focal point to educate patients and learn about their routines.
Care is holistic
RPM providers work alongside PCPs, educators, pharmacists, community health workers and more.
Three types of RPM programs
Employer-based, private, and urgent care, each with its own enrollment premise and check-in rhythm.
One opportunity stood out: bringing RPM to urgent care, where patients recently discharged from an urgent incident need monitoring to avoid a repeat.
Impact
- I presented the project at the company All-Hands. Research is usually bundled, so a dedicated 10-minute section was rare.
- The conversation around RPM changed. The corporate quarterly goal shifted to align with the insights: instead of only selling RPM to providers, Glooko explored partnering with coaches to offer a full turnkey solution.
- Sales used the insights to educate providers on RPM and how to start it at their practice.
- We elevated the History page, which helps providers who focus only on that page.
Dasher App
Led research for DoorDash’s Dasher platform, supporting 8 PMs and their teams, running studies across customers, dashers, and merchants.
- Company
- DoorDash
- Role
- Senior Researcher
Skilled at breaking chaos down into digestible insights
She is in design research because she cares about understanding the human experience and bettering it. All product and feature problems start out with chaos, a big question that needs answering. From there, she asks the right questions to get to insights that help organize the chaos and lead to a better product in the hands of the user.
She runs on tea (especially the pearl milk tea/boba/bubble tea variety), is an avid post-it user, and bakes to destress. Her current favourite boba place is Sunright Tea Studio.
Christina graduated from Carnegie Mellon University majoring in Business and Human Computer Interaction. You can contact her at christinaho.918@gmail.com.