#147 - UX Research in Healthcare with Nadyne Richmond
Apr 30, 2024
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Healthcare design advisor Nadyne Richmond discusses challenges in healthcare research, like engaging professionals and patients, legal requirements, and data protection. She emphasizes the rewards and intricacies of healthcare research, including the importance of thorough planning, sensitive topics management, and balancing objectivity with empathy.
Culturally similar healthcare providers lead to improved outcomes for patients, emphasizing the importance of representation in healthcare.
Healthcare research involves navigating legal compliance, privacy concerns, and sensitivity towards diverse populations for comprehensive insights and positive changes.
Deep dives
Concordant Care in Healthcare
Receiving care from someone similar in background, like ethnicity, gender identity, or LGBTQ+ status, leads to better healthcare outcomes as culturally similar providers offer improved care. For instance, when black women receive care from black clinicians, maternal mortality rates improve significantly.
Challenges in Healthcare Research
Healthcare research is complex due to its multifaceted nature, involving patients, clinicians, insurance providers, and other stakeholders. Researchers face obstacles such as legal compliance, privacy protection, and the need to manage various populations with sensitivity and care.
Diverse Research Studies in Healthcare
Diverse research studies in healthcare include working with pregnant individuals, unhoused populations, and individuals from different ethnic backgrounds to understand healthcare disparities. Spending time in doctors' offices and hospitals provides insights into healthcare delivery complexities and the challenges faced by medical professionals.
Research Methods and Impact in Healthcare
Healthcare research combines qualitative and quantitative methods like ethnography, interviews, and surveys to gain comprehensive insights. The rigorous research process ensures compliance, privacy protection, and a focus on meaningful outcomes to drive positive changes in healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.
Erin and Carol explore the complexities of healthcare research with Nadyne Richmond, a healthcare design advisor with a background in big tech who pivoted to healthcare research a decade ago to tackle the pressing issues she saw in the system.
Nadyne underscores the nuances of conducting user experience (UX) research within healthcare settings, unpacking the intersections of patients' lives, their health, financial well-being, and spiritual factors that can come with many diagnoses. She emphasizes the importance of being well-prepared to manage deep conversations, maintain objectivity while being viewed as human, and handle the delicacy of information with privacy and sensitivity.
Nadyne shares practical advice on approaching sensitive research topics, providing control to participants, giving space for the research team, and even using diary studies for a more comprehensive understanding of patient experiences. Additionally, she talks about the intricacies involved when working with healthcare players, from insurance providers to medical staff, and how their differing incentives shape patient care.
Episode Highlights
03:56 - Transitioning from tech to healthcare research
13:56 - Challenges when researching with medical professionals
21:32 - Navigating Sensitive Topics when recruiting patients
28:45 - Planning for legal requirements in user testing
35:24 - Data protection in healthcare research
41:11 - The unique rewards of healthcare research
About Our Guest Nadyne Richmond is a user researcher and experience design leader with a track record spanning two decades. She has worked and led teams at places like IBM, Microsoft, Included Health, and Babylon. She started her career as an engineer, giving her a unique window in the challenges of creating products and services that are excel technically and meet the demands of customers and the business alike.