'Get well sooner with myUZ', the New Patient Portal of University Hospitals Leuven User Experience Showcase as presented on eChallenges in Firenze, October 2011

1. Get well sooner with myUZ
The New Patient Portal of University Hospitals Leuven
Johan Verhaegen
Leading UX Expert & Senior Project Manager
eChallenges, Firenze – Italy, October 26-28 2011

2. Get well sooner with myUZ
 The New Patient Portal of University Hospitals
Leuven
 University Hospitals Leuven, one of the biggest
hospitals in Belgium
 620.763 consultations
 100.883 day surgeries
 64.930 hospitalizations

3. Get well sooner with myUZ
 Getting well
 on a physical level by medical care
 on a psychological level by information and
communication
 Patients need reliable information
 Patients want to communicate
 with caretakers and with loved ones
 before, during and after
the hospital visit

4. Get well sooner with myUZ
 Reliable information from UZ Leuven to its
patients
 face-to-face
 brochures
 public website

5. Get well sooner with myUZ
 Patients search for information themselves
 inside ánd outside the hospital
 causes challenges
 is this information reliable, useful, relevant,…?
 does this information really apply to the patient (age,
characteristics, condition, medication,…)?

6. Get well sooner with myUZ
 A lot of patients and caretakers feel like this

7. Get well sooner with myUZ
 While they should feel like this

8. Get well sooner with myUZ
 Huge communication management efforts required
 Patients need personal, tailored information from a reliable
source
based on information in medical files: diagnosis, treatment, planned
examinations, tests, surgical interventions
accompanied by documents with validated medical information
overview of all appointments and invoices
incorrect or wrong information is the last thing they can use
 Patients want to interact
manage information (documents)
fill in questionnaires
send messages
 Communication has to be simple and easy
 push
 pull

9. Get well sooner with myUZ
 Initial focus on patients with a chronic illness
 close connection to hospital
 used to monitor their health
 more informed and up-to-date
 motivated, concerned and engaged
 UZ Leuven created a first functional proof-of-
concept
 Appointments, Questionnaires, Documents, Invoices
and Messages

10. Get well sooner with myUZ
 Human Interface Group
 UX expert evaluation by UX expert
 improvements on homepage, navigation area and
modules
 creation of Design Patterns
 consistency in flow
 clarity in structure
 designing a straightforward Push/Pull concept

12. Get well sooner with myUZ
 The information that is available in the medical files is
sent to the patient (push), based on myUZ tags
 tags < Electronic Patient Files for over 15 years
 The patient as an information consumer
 patients don’t look for information, but the information is
presented
 patients need to be seduced to consume the information, that is
presented to them on a serving tray

13. Push

14. Push

15. Get well sooner with myUZ
 Own tags (orange)
 private
 not shared with other patients
 sharing all tags with all patients would contaminate the tags in
myUZ
 Contamination of the tags: trust and credibility 
 Patient Tag Monitoring
 if used a lot and if meaningful
 => promoted to ‘myUZ tag’
 fine-tune and enrich the metadata

16. Get well sooner with myUZ
 Patient also searches for information (pull)
 add documents to the inbox
 subscribe to certain tags
 The patient as an information seeker
 more focused and goal-oriented
 more active

17. Get well sooner with myUZ
 As a patient you already receive information, based on
your characteristics and condition
 But you also want to look for information about other
topics, for someone else (your child, mother or father,
a friend), or just because you’re interested
 All information is available, structured, classified and
well-ordered

18. Pull

19. Case
Get well sooner with myUZ study
 All information exchange is secured by eID
technology
 Belgian Electronic Identity Card
 technology to identify, authenticate, electronically
sign documents and manage administrative tasks
online

20. Case
Get well sooner with myUZ study
 Constant focus on these patients, finding a ‘healthy’
balance between technology and user experience
 crucial to keep the users in mind, make technology user-friendly
and give it a human face
 biggest challenge was nót the technology, but
(organizing, gathering, tagging, ...) the content
 Informing patients
 in the best possible way
 in a reassuring, pleasant environment
 while they are feeling safe and being supported on their medical
journey

21. Case
Get well sooner with myUZ study
 Buy in
 medical staff realizes that information flow to the
patients is crucial, but it is not their day-to-day top
priority
 people are very enthusiastic at the beginning and
expect a lot from the technology behind the scenes
 it soon becomes clear that they will have to invest
time and effort to make this all happen for their
patients.
 It requires a mind shift within UZ Leuven and it
will be an ongoing process for some time

22. johan.verhaegen@higroup.com De Regenboog 11
2800 Mechelen
+32 (0)15 40 01 38
www.higroup.com
Zie ook
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