The healthcare sector is a highly regulated environment that is subject to numerous constraints. Standards around medical protocol, medical device certification, and data protection ensure that the wellbeing and privacy of patients is protected during all encounters with the healthcare system. However, a gap has opened up between the need to meet these constraints, improve performance, and also deliver good patient experience. For example, the medical protocol for hypertension during pregnancy establishes a set of clinically validated treatment guidelines, but does not consider the unique nature of patient experience. We assert that design research principles can be used to create visual tools that pay homage to these constraints and performance improvement goals without compromising patient experience. In this paper, we describe such a tool that has been developed during a healthcare project using a human-centred design research approach. The integrated tool for patient journey mapping addresses the shortcomings of existing methodologies by supporting multidisciplinary practitioners in designing healthcare solutions that meet the demands of existing constraints, performance improvement, and patient experience. In addition, we document how patient journey maps were used on the project to facilitate collaboration among a team of multidisciplinary stakeholders.
The minimum viable product (MVP) is a fundamental concept of the Lean Start-up approach as it enables a company to quickly start the learning process by integrating feedback from early adopters. Although the MVP concept has evolved over the years, its application is most often reported in a start-up context, even though established companies struggle to develop MVPs. This study reports on the experience and lessons learned at Texuna Technologies, an established company, where the software product innovation team created a process map for developing MVPs. This is the first study that allows the original MVP approach to be extended and applied to established organisations.
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