Sara Zarro: Good afternoon. Everyone. Welcome to the very Fourth Hutton Health Series here at Bentley University. We're really pleased today to have Boston children's first experience team with us. First of all, let us apologize for the delay. We were having a little bit of technical difficulties. But we're really excited today to welcome Zach Cohen, who is a user experience researcher and a Bentley alumni. Sara Zarro: Also Liz Hurley, who's a manager of digital health experience, and also a Bentley alumni, Katerina Cooke, who's a senior associate of digital health, equity and inclusion. Also Sam Moyer, who's digital health experience specialist and Peggy and apologize for the pronunciation. Is it racinos Sara Zarro: who is a senior interactive designer as well? And so again, welcome to Boston children's first experience team, and without further ado we'll turn it over to you. Thank you so much. Zach Cohen: Thank you. Good to see everybody here today. Nice to be here, let me share. Oh, it, says host. Disabled participant. Screen sharing Sara Zarro: we are. Zach Cohen: Oh, there we go. Zach Cohen: Okay. So me Zach Cohen: slide show. Okay, can everybody see that? Zach Cohen: Okay? Great. So yeah, like, it was mentioned. We are the digital health user experience team here at Boston children's we're gonna talk a little bit about our backgrounds, and how we got here, and then go into a little bit about what we each do. In our roles. And yeah, that will take some questions. So Zach Cohen: we go on. So again we introduced ours. We'll introduce ourselves again in more depth. After that short intro from Bentley. So we have myself. Zack. We have Liz, Peggy, Sam, and Katrina here. Zach Cohen: So I am, Zach Cohen. I'm the first digital health user experience researcher. I am a Bentley alumni. As was mentioned, I graduated in May from the Hfid program, the graduate program. Zach Cohen: So I'm just gonna quickly go over sort of how I got here. So our goal here today is to kind of show that there's not one linear path into digital health or user experience. And there's a lot of different roles that are involved in improving the patient experience here at Bch, so I started in the ux world, in Arizona, where I'm from doing a lot of work for B Twob enterprise companies. Zach Cohen: In the fields of like marketing automation. I worked at a construction project management company. I worked at a consultancy and I never thought I would go to grad school. But it ended up being a very good opportunity for me. Where I found the Bentley Master's degree and the Bentley User Experience Center, which I was lucky enough to be able to work at. So Zach Cohen: that's what brought me here to Boston. And during my time at Bentley, working at the user experience center, I was able to consult with healthcare clients, biotech clients, education clients. So I'd always really wanted to be in healthcare and be in the research side of things. But it wasn't until I came to Bentley that really helped me cement that into my Zach Cohen: my career here. So I started bch a little over a year ago. As again, the user experience researcher to join Liz, who was the first ux person here at at vch, on the digital health side of things. And again. And then in May I completed my master's degree in human factors and information design from Bentley. Zach Cohen: So a little bit more about my role here and what I do. So I run a lot of different research studies. We are all part of the Ideha, which is the innovation and digital health accelerator on the digital health side of things. So we are separate from, like the clinical side of the hospital and basically, our roles are to help improve the patient experience through digital products and services. So Zach Cohen: as a researcher, I do a lot of things like designing studies and helping us learn more about our users, which are patients and families in most cases I also do things to help improve our internal Zach Cohen: projects and services. So for people who are physicians, for people who are working at bch, not in a clinical role. We all kind of do work internally and externally. There. And so I do a lot of different methods. You'll hear mixed methods research a lot. So that's qualitative and quantitative. Zach Cohen: Things like interviews, surveys Zach Cohen: as well as Zach Cohen: moderated and unmoderated studies to again help learn more about our patients, and how they. Zach Cohen: how their mental models align with our experiences, and see if we can kind of narrow the gap there. So. And then II take what we learn. I synthesize them into presentations, basically. And then I circulate that information with different stakeholder groups to help Zach Cohen: us actually like, make changes and not just take things. Learn them. Say, Okay, that's great. But what does this actually mean for for us? And what are the next steps to actually enact that change? So a lot of what I do is being a champion for the user, the voice of the customer, that kind of thing that you've heard. Zach Cohen: And yeah, so that's like the main Zach Cohen: portion of my role. It's very interdisciplinary which I enjoy. I get to work with a lot of different kinds of people, a lot of different groups, cross functional teams. And Zach Cohen: yeah. So I've had a really good experience here thus far, and I'm excited to see where the next few years hold. So that's a little bit about me, and sort of how I got here and what I do. And again, we're gonna take questions at the end. So everyone's gonna kind of introduce ourselves, do our whole thing. And then at the end, we can answer some questions from you guys. So and then just a couple of fun facts about me. Zach Cohen: I really love cooking and and baking and stuff like that. I do play guitar. I enjoy that as well. And then I also did Karate for about 10 years. That was my first job was a Karate instructor. When I was 13 years old I started doing that. So yeah, that those are like big parts of my life. And yeah, we will continue to move on to Liz. Elizabeth Hurley: Thanks. I I'm Liz, and I am the digital health experience manager. I started working at Boston Children's about 5 years ago. Elizabeth Hurley: But my career and user experience began a really long time ago. I started working on websites before most people knew what websites were. And my job evolved as Elizabeth Hurley: web design. And the Internet evolved. Software has changed a lot over the years. but the concept's pretty much the same. Elizabeth Hurley: and I've worked for several different companies. But my goal from the beginning was to work in a health related company because my, I had gone to graduate school for biomedical visualization. Elizabeth Hurley: And so when this job came up, I was really happy to get it. And I've been really happy here. I was the first user experience person and digital health. Elizabeth Hurley: And I started as a user experience designer. Elizabeth Hurley: And it my role transition to the manager as more people were added to the team. And we do, we really are, we really do have a lot to do. We we work on making sure our products are Elizabeth Hurley: as easy to use and as accessible as possible. So that includes design and user research and communications. Elizabeth Hurley: And we try to help our teams make more informed decisions as they improve their products Elizabeth Hurley: for my role. The pros are that I really do have an amazing team. And we we really what work well together. Elizabeth Hurley: And I have freedom to decide a lot of the work that I do which I love. Just to decide what I want to do each day and what prioritize my own work. Elizabeth Hurley: And then I like working across a lot of different teams because there's always something new going on, and we're always learning something. Elizabeth Hurley: The cons to being a manager is that Elizabeth Hurley: it? It involves a lot more paperwork and meetings. Elizabeth Hurley: It takes a long time to get changes implemented at a hospital, and being a manager is a completely different Elizabeth Hurley: requires a a completely different set of skills. So I feel like I'm learning all over again. Elizabeth Hurley: And for my fun facts I added things that in the long run has really helped me with my job because I? Elizabeth Hurley: I have experiences external to work that help me understand our users better in some ways. Elizabeth Hurley: I had a non-traditional education, so I didn't graduate until I was 26, Elizabeth Hurley: and then. Elizabeth Hurley: after probably 20 years. Elizabeth Hurley: I realize that well, my job had stayed the same. The field of user experience had really become a field, and I had a lot to learn, which is why I went back to Bentley, and I got a masters in human factors. Elizabeth Hurley: and it's helped me in a lot of ways, partly what I loved about it was having a community, but also being able to educate and explain concepts in a way that people understand was really helpful, and learning that I could find out most answers on my own just by doing research and looking at Internet and Elizabeth Hurley: learning ways to improve design and and user ex user research methods. Elizabeth Hurley: I didn't have a computer till it was after over 30. I also didn't have health care till I was in my mid-thirties, which Elizabeth Hurley: which is, wasn't great. But it it's helped me to understand other people at hospital at this point I also didn't have a car till I was in my mid thirties. Elizabeth Hurley: and I lived in all sorts of fun places. I lived in a tent, and Martha's Vineyard for summer. Elizabeth Hurley: Oh, well, tent was in Colorado. I started in a tent on markets vineyard, but I ended up in a beach chair. and I lived in a mansion in Ireland, and I also took care of a handicapped woman Elizabeth Hurley: when I went to Berkeley. Elizabeth Hurley: That's it for me until you have if you unless you have questions later on. Thank you. Peggy Recinos: Thanks, Liz. Peggy Recinos: Hi! My name is Peggy, and I'm gonna get to my fun facts right now. I love gardening. I broke my nose 3 times, and I love enjoy participating in triathlons in the summer. So my journey I Peggy Recinos: earned my undergraduate degree in design. After flopping around for about a year and a half undeclared but once I found it, I knew I that was, you know what I wanted to do. And then I went on to earn my graduate degree in graph design. Peggy Recinos: My first job out was at a startup company, and that was actually a great fit for me, because it exposed me to all aspects of of graph design, visual design. namely, like Peggy Recinos: corporate identity, Peggy Recinos: animation interactivity print design, and so working at that job for a while, II knew that I want to get into the more interactive side. So my next job was at a consulting firm that designed and built interactive experiences, namely, like websites and applications for fortune. 500 companies Peggy Recinos: that was a fantastic job, for other reasons great team, but also exposed me to different types of stakeholders and industries so e-commerce financial publications and so forth. Peggy Recinos: But you know again, like just going through all the motions and things III know I knew that I what I gravitated towards. I loved working for the pro bono, the pro bono clients that we had. That's kind of what was more memorable to me. So clients that had, you know, Peggy Recinos: you know, connection with the community that gave back in some way that was more meaningful to me. So when a position at the hospital, Boston Children's Hospital opened up, I was excited about it. I applied. I got the job, and I never looked back. So that was 20 years ago, and I'm still here now. I haven't. I loved my new job and my role here. Is much the same. It's experienced designers. So I'm you know. Peggy Recinos: I'm designing interfaces typically for for applications and websites and so forth. And just improving that user experience. Peggy Recinos: and instead of going through the laundry list of things that are related to that job, I'm just gonna show you some images that that'll probably put it in a little bit more context. So Zack, if you can move to the next slide. Great! So this is actually the project that I'm working on right now. Meet Cindy. Cynthia is leading the Observership program at the hospital, and she is inundated with applications, thousands of applications Peggy Recinos: around the around the year. She leads a program that allows doctors from all over the world to observe or watch our doctors at the hospital in action. So Peggy Recinos: you know, performing surgery, or, you know, interacting with the patient perform and just conducting research and so forth. So it's a very competitive program to get into the application process is very complicated and arduous, not unlike, probably, the application process that you guys suffered through and and getting your college applications done like congratulations on that so very similar experience to that. So Peggy Recinos: she communicated that. You know her staff is just having a a heck of a time. Just you know, getting keeping organized and keeping track of all the applications or applicants. Also, we're feeling anxiety over, you know, missing deadlines, knowing Peggy Recinos: not knowing what to the you know, what what they need to submit when, where, and all that stuff and they're they were also constantly contacting the Admin staff for status of their application. So you know what I'm describing to you is very typical process of just requirements gathering. So this is when you're talking to stakeholder, and you get to know all of their problems, their pain points. Peggy Recinos: their goals their audience. And so all of that, those details are priceless, and that's really what's gonna help you come up with the best solution for them. So Zack, can you please move to the next slide. Thank you. So after we documented all that, then we were ready to move to the next phase. And here we decided to create a dashboard for those applicants so that they can have a centralized area for their applications and Peggy Recinos: or for their their application, so they can see the status of it and keep track of it. And you know, when something was due they knew where to go, how to do it, and so forth. So there was no anxiety there at freed up time for the Admin staff, because they weren't calling as much. And so the Admin staff can concentrate on their job, which was reviewing this and pushing those applications through. So there was tons of steps. But this is basically like figuring out the content, the functionality Peggy Recinos: behavior, how to get from one screen to the next. And this is also where I pull in my peeps. My, you know the from this group. So I am calling on Sam to help me out with finalizing wording. I'm calling on Katrina to make sure this is equitable and and Edi compliant. And I'm calling Stack to get user testing to make sure that we're using the right path, you know. Method, that's most intuitive to users. Peggy Recinos: So, after all that's done. So it's like I said, it's very interdisciplinary. And of course the tech team Peggy Recinos: so if you can go to the next slide. So then we move to what's it going to look like? So this is interface I came up with for this dashboard. It's very, you know, streamlined. It's modern. It reflects the the branding of our hospital with the colors and typography. Peggy Recinos: There's a clear call to action we we have byte size, you know, bits of like, what the task are. We lay him out for the applicant. So they know, you know, this is data request form. That's up next. That's what you can start, and we enable them and empower them to click in that card Peggy Recinos: fill out the form, update their documents, or what have you? And then they get instant feedback on? You know that that part is completed, and so they can kind of feel good that they've done that. They know that it's, you know, thrown to the other side of the fence. They don't have to worry about it, and they know instantly what the status is of their application. Peggy Recinos: It's also mobile, friendly, and accessible. Peggy Recinos: So that's just a a nutshell, an overview of kind of a a day in the life, or like the the process, I should not say not today, but just like the process that goes into designing an interface. Peggy Recinos: Like, I said. I still love my job. And as you can see, it's a lot of problem solving. You get to work with great teams, and it's ever changing. So keeps you on your toes. So with that I'll Peggy Recinos: push it over to Sam. Samantha Moyer: Yeah, Hi, hi, everyone. So my name's Samuel. I'm a digital health experience specialist. And what that essentially means is, I work with our great group here as well as the rest of our digital health products on communications and marketing efforts. So really being able to market our projects, educate not only staff but patients as well. Which is super super important, of course. Samantha Moyer: to the patient experience to make sure they know what to do when they come into the hospital, or what they should do. Maybe ahead of this, or if they should do something at home. So I work very closely with this group as well as our other product Samantha Moyer: leads to make sure that we keep everything consistent within branding. Make it clear. Make sure it's at a readable level. Make sure it's accessible. Working with Katrina on the Edi work as well. So just a little background as to how I got here. I initially started in the Guest service focus in healthcare. So I previously worked at Johns Hopkins on an inpatient unit to focus on the non clinical service. Samantha Moyer: assistance that they need. So I would help for anything from getting orange juice to help setting up for an entourage patient coming onto the unit. So once I got a lot of experience, being very patient forward, I shifted over to kind of behind the scenes with patient experience, office and support the chief Patient Experience officer. So I was able to work behind the scenes and see how everything was rolled out to the different departments, how the Samantha Moyer: communication was different and the education was different. Between maybe peeds or Samantha Moyer: adults, or maybe a difference between the neuro team versus the medicine teams. So it was really great to be able to get that experience. Samantha Moyer: I'd always wanted to work in a pediatric institution. So I moved over to children's to work behind the scenes on online second opinions. working on more of the operation centered. I also, during Covid, started my master's, which I completed last December and corporate communications which is super exciting. So now I switched over more to working on the my children's portal efforts, which is our patient experience, which is our patient portal. Working on the education, the communication to making sure that people understand what they should use this for the benefits of it. Samantha Moyer: and how it could improve over their patient experience while they're coming here to children's. So I completed my masters and I shifted into this new role as the experience specialists so like, I kinda touched on before. I create the education and promotional materials for patients and families. So we really have to make sure we stay within the strong branding that Bch has, as well as making sure that it's easily understandable. That we have it in multiple languages Samantha Moyer: if needed. I also work very closely with another colleague here on hosting monthly digital health ambassador meetings. So that allows time for digital health team to present to our digital health ambassadors, which are like champions for their for their own departments. So they have. They've selected a number of people from different areas to bring that message back to them. Samantha Moyer: I also coordinate and publish the Monthly Digital Health Newsletter, which is exciting. So that's been going on for about 2 and a half years. And it includes all the lovely updates that we have, and we make it really fun and very very interactive, which is great. I also distribute the education materials. And I maintain our digital health web 2 pages, which is our internal staff Samantha Moyer: messaging, which is very exciting, that we can communicate and post things on our internal site and get them updated and keep them con consistent and up to date. And then finally, I work very closely with Zack and Liz on designing and maintaining our external digital health and my children's pages. So making sure that we update them with upcoming transitions. Or if we have a new product that we want to put out there. Samantha Moyer: I work very closely with them to make sure that it's usable and very helpful. Finally, my, my little fun facts are I am Samantha Moyer: a big angle file, so if I could live in England I would. So the B. And the light blue is for Manchester. I'm a big football fan, and then I just love the Uk in general. And so that's where the rain comes in. And then the the Uk flag at the bottom, and that's it. Now turn it over to Katrina. Katrina Cook: Hello! Is everyone able to hear me? Katrina Cook: Great? Okay? Awesome. So I am the Ida equity and inclusion specialist. it's a recent change from the senior associate of digital health, equity, inclusion. And I'll speak to kind of what the the differences and the expansion there. But Katrina Cook: I think that my journey is really Katrina Cook: interesting, and how I got here, and never even knew that this existed as an opportunity. And so hopefully, this is helpful. For the undergrads and graduate students that are here listening to be able to know, like there's so much out there, and just kind of breaking down. What you're looking for is really Katrina Cook: how I got to this place. So when I was in high school I went to 3 different high schools, but my last high school that I went to was a boarding school in Pennsylvania, and my rock climbing coach was an amputee, and I got to learn about all the different types of prostheses that exist in the world and kind of what they are used for, and then it kind of like reframed my mind about Katrina Cook: People who have disabilities are actually Katrina Cook: able to have super abilities, and you can really use these traits that you live with to to really excel and it kind of put my perspective, or shifted my perspective from Katrina Cook: what healthcare was in my mind, into what I wanted to do with it. So I sort of had blinders on after that point that I wanted to work in prosthetics and orthotics, and that's all I was going to do. So I went to Northeastern University and for undergrad. And I specifically was like, I'm going to be a prostitute. That is all I care about. That is all I'm going to do. I'm going to make my own major and so I had an undergraduate degree in health sciences, which is kind of referred to as premed for northeastern students. Katrina Cook: and then they have a lot of opportunities for extra classes, electives. And so I did a minor in biomedical engineering and Asl and desk studies, and just kind of went for it. I was so focused it was not. There was nothing in my life that could take me away from being a prostitute at that time. Katrina Cook: And there was a lot of reasons why which we'll get into. But I after graduating when it's a clinical care for 3 and a half years. Between Chop and Top, his Children's Hospital, Philadelphia and Boston Children's Hospital, working as a certified orthotic Assistant and certified fitter of orthotics, and worked it with prosthetics as well. So doing. Pediatric prosthetics and orthotics care which is where you Katrina Cook: measure the patience for their prostheses assess whether they need them or those these as well, and you actually build them, and then you fit them, and then you see them as you move forward. It was a really interesting career, and I highly recommend it, everyone. But when I was sitting in this job for 3 and a half years I started to realize that the same issues were coming in over and over again into the Katrina Cook: into the clinic. And my patients were really suffering from these kind of bigger picture problems about access to care. And a lot of them felt very fixable. But I didn't have the right Katrina Cook: training or the right reach or hierarchy level to be able to fix these problems. Some of them would be unable to get insurance referrals, even though they had coverage because they had gone to the wrong provider previously. And so, therefore I would measure these kids for things that were needed Katrina Cook: immediately to to help them with like muscle contractors. So if they had a risk contractor, their hand is like this, and they need slowly to move up and extend. And so you have to build these orthosis to slowly extend them, and when they wouldn't have insurance coverage whatever I measured and casted them for Katrina Cook: down the road, when they finally get insurance coverage in like 3 months, not only have they grown, but also their contractor has worsened, and so, therefore, what I had cast them for previously didn't work, and therefore I had to cast them again. And then we went back and through the same process, and these kids would have been able to have have help. But they they didn't get it. So Katrina Cook: I was at this kind of turning point where I was very aware of all of these things that were happening around me that were kind of these big picture equity and access issues. And I really cared about this stuff, anyways. I was doing a lot of deaf, deaf work. I was working a lot with transgender healthcare and things like that on the side. But Katrina Cook: I had to make a decision, for how I moved forward in my career, and I would either be able to choose my master's in science and prosthetics and robotics, which was very specific, and the next step here, where I would be able to lead my own efforts here? Or do I go into public health and potentially keep working as a orthotic assistant, which is kind of the PA to like the physicians assistant to the Mspos or Katrina Cook: or something else. Katrina Cook: And so I decided to get an Mph. And learn a little bit more about these big picture items, and through that. Katrina Cook: Oh, my gosh, my world was brought like, broadened like crazy. I ended up taking on this role as a digital access liaison at children's, which is basically an internal hospital consultant. So I started to learn a lot about the inner workings of the hospital which helps me to kind of Katrina Cook: put together all of these questions I had about communication between different departments for all of these patients that have complex care, and they see all these different departments, and they weren't talking to each other, and they were breaking down their access to moving forward in their care as they grow, and they worsen or get better in their health. Katrina Cook: And from that I had an Edi Sme, which is a subject matter expertise. So I was learning a lot about the equity. Katrina Cook: diversity and inclusion and access to care in that role in all of the different departments, seeing how it affects each different community, and all the different patients and families coming in. And then this role kind of came from here. That was a long journey piece, so I understand it. But what I like to kind of Katrina Cook: why I like to dive into that a little bit is because Katrina Cook: when I was even in public health, I didn't know that this was an option. There were 3 options that we could go into. We could either work for the city. We could work for a nonprofit or we could work and be a teacher or professor, and I was like, that's it, I guess. But I already had a little bit of a focus from my previous job, and I was like, Okay, what did I love about being in prosthetics and orthotics? I loved making relationships with people that lasted a long period of time. I loved being creative to figure out solutions to problems Katrina Cook: that I needed to bring in people and and kind of collaborate on. And Katrina Cook: I wanted to make a difference, and I feel like those things can fit so many different roles and build roles that you didn't even know existed. And so that's what we ended up doing here at children's so my current role Katrina Cook: is obviously, on this team. You've met everyone else. And I work in sort of a a Katrina Cook: kind of like a strategy, but still sort of consultancy level where I work with each of the different digital health product teams. Some of them you've heard of from these groups like the portal and determine Katrina Cook: who has access to those products who does not have access to those products? And how do we get them access? Is there a language barrier that people are facing, that they can't get to the product to use it? Is there access to broadband that they have issues with? Are there disparities that are breaking down people's access to these to care that that is something that we need to like address on a bigger picture. Do we need to dive in? Do we need to take away? Anyways. Katrina Cook: I'm going into like a little ramble. But okay, so digital products. The innovation and accelerator side. So these are kind of new ideas that are coming through. And one of them is AI and automation. I know, AI, and health is like a really fuzzy process right now that Biden's team just released an executive Katrina Cook: executive. Katrina Cook: Sorry Katrina Cook: executive order. Thank you. I'm blanking on the word of an executive order for for AI. And so Katrina Cook: we're working with these groups and building products and systems that are brand new and innovative and novel to make sure that we're not amplifying bias, that we're considering people who have access and don't have access and making sure that we're making this the most equitable as we can and working with data, analytics, teams to understand where we stand right now, stratifying by metrics for edi and revealing disparities that we need to approach Katrina Cook: and then I'm also working on like legislation teams and sharing information to different Katrina Cook: leadership stakeholders and levels. To make sure that we're moving forward. And finally, I also have a hand in the workforce side of things. So internally our staff do we feel like we are belonging here, and what is the culture of our system? And how are we developing our internal processes here to make sure that everyone feels welcome and can move forward, and is included in every Katrina Cook: decision that we're making. That's a lot of information. I'm sorry when I go last I tend to just keep talking. But fun facts. I like to swim. My last name's Cook. I love to cook. I'm terrified of swans and my favorite place I visited is South Korea. Katrina Cook: Would love questions. Zach Cohen: yeah, thanks, everybody. So this is the last slide that we wanted to share. There's a ton of information on here do not feel obligated to, you know. Understand everything that's on this slide. But Zach Cohen: so mosaic is the this big initiative that's happening at our in our hospital that's going to launch next summer. It's we're transitioning from 2 electronic health record systems to one. And this requires a lot of work on all of our efforts. So this is just an example of sort of Zach Cohen: all of some examples from the last year of things that we've worked on individually and together. And there's a ton of overlap with all of these projects. The the middle, you know, black. Zach Cohen: purple color is things that we've worked on together. And then, you know, the different colors are represent our individual contributions. But this is just to illustrate, like. Zach Cohen: how how much stuff there is to do, I guess, like you may think that. Oh, if if you launch like an app, let's say if the app is good when it's launched. Zach Cohen: That should be it right? You don't need to update it continuously, or there's not problems that come up. But there, there is. There's always things that that are changing. There's always stakeholders that have different ideas of of what things should be and different problems that patients need address. So and and another point. I just wanted to highlight again from everyone's descriptions of their journey and their role and everything. You can see that Zach Cohen: we all have very different backgrounds, and none of them were were very linear. Zach Cohen: you know, much like Zach Cohen: a lot of other people. I didn't even I didn't know this role existed right before. I never thought I would work in a hospital. But now I really love it, and everybody here is really smart and really passionate about what they do. Zach Cohen: and you can also so tell that all of our roles Zach Cohen: we are all, each the only ones who do what we do right now. So we are responsible for not only sort of the Mac, the micro, but also the macro decision making that comes from Zach Cohen: all of these new things that we're doing. We're trying to establish these roles and establish these practices so that we can continue to grow and take care of our our patients at a at a higher level, from a more strategic lens as well. Not just the tactical stuff. So it's really exciting. Really interesting time. And Zach Cohen: yeah. So I just wanted to highlight those things again. So I know that we shared a lot of info and we would love to hear questions from you all. If you have any. So Zach Cohen: thank you. Zach Cohen: Stop sharing. Sara Zarro: Thank you so much, everybody and my apologies. This is Danielle Solara. My apologies for not being here at the start, but I caught the majority of everyone talking, and it was really insightful and engaging. So thank you so much for being here, and for making the time. Sara Zarro: There are a couple of questions we have. So the first one for anybody would be what would be your best advice to someone listening who is interested in these roles, at whatever stage they're in Sara Zarro: ad or like wherever they are in their nonlinear journey. Katrina Cook: I can start. Is that okay? I think the best thing to do is to meet people. So, and to have conversations, informational interviews at your best friend. Something that I did in order to find the digital access liaison. So that role that kind of got me into my first public health realm was I went on Linkedin, and I found people who had job titles at Trolton's Hospital, which I was interested in working in cause. I was already there. That matched it. Katrina Cook: What I was interested in, and I message them, and I said, Can I have an informational interview with you about your job. And then from that Katrina Cook: I was going to apply to a different job, and that person ended up connecting me to someone who ended up bringing me into that space. Katrina Cook: I think that that's a networking is huge, and there's aspects of networking that are inherently inequitable. But if you can like, if you need help or anything or II know that everyone on this team is is interested in helping. So you can reach out to one of us, and we can connect you to someone we know in the in the field. This team is very involved in broad and diverse range of groups at Children's Hospital, specifically that we would be able to at least help coordinate something. But that's my my best advice for that. Zach Cohen: Yeah, I would echo that as well. Sara Zarro: Thank you, Katrina and Zach, that's really great advice, and just for a plug for the center for health and business. You know, we run these on site insights or field trips to different companies. So we're going to suffer construction. Which again sounds like, why would you go to Suffolk construction? That's such a strange place to go. Sara Zarro: But you know the Vp of business development for healthcare is gonna be there, and the Vp. Of client relations in New England. So again, all these connections right? Thank you for pointing out the per, the importance of networking, because, regardless of maybe the particular industry or the company that you're visiting. The networking aspect is huge. These folks are quite well connected, probably with many hospitals, many life, science institutions if anybody has interest in things like that. So thank you. Katrina and Zach, like, put yourself out there right. Ask questions. Sara Zarro: Alright. We got another question. So Sara Zarro: we have. Thank you all for cheering. I'm a 2,006 grad who's been in healthcare since 2,009 on the vendor side. And I'm excited to see Bentley shedding some light on the healthcare space. I currently work for an innovative, remote, patient monitoring solution. So yeah, we'll have someone reach out to you. Thanks so much, Chris, for your comment. And you know, want to get more involved. Those are always exciting things. Clearly, I didn't read the whole thing through that there was no question mark in there. But thank you, Chris. Sara Zarro: So this is a good one, though what are some skills or knowledge that you wished you had developed earlier. Zach Cohen: I think one one thing at least from my perspective. I think there's a lot of emphasis when you're early in your career on finding the right. Zach Cohen: like tools or Zach Cohen: products, or like programming languages, or whatever it is like. I need to learn. Xyz. This specific thing. Zach Cohen: I wish that I had focused less on like being proficient in like figma, for example, and being more adaptable like Katrina was mentioning this, is, it really is all about Zach Cohen: who you know how easy you are to work with? These softer skills that sort of you may think is like, not as important or I think, are are sometimes just as important as the hard skills you obviously need to be able to do your job and whatever that entails. But I think, being adaptable and being eager to learn and never stop learning. No matter if you have a Master's degree or a Phd. Or you're 80 years old. Zach Cohen: Always have a beginner mindset. Always be eager to learn from everyone and anyone, because you can. Always I learned something new every day. That I work here with, whether it's someone on our team or Zach Cohen: a patient or anybody. So keeping being really open minded, and not being too tied into one outcome or one path for yourself, because, as we all know, like the days of Zach Cohen: starting at at a company and working there for your whole career are likely, you know. That's very unusual these days. So Zach Cohen: and and again, all of us kind of didn't know we would end up here, but we all like it now, so not not getting too hung up on the outcome and and focusing more on you know what you do have control over and and your connections and your your network Elizabeth Hurley: for me. When I went to Bantley, I was a user experience designer. And that's what I wanted to do. So I was like, I'm gonna take all the user experience design classes they have. Elizabeth Hurley: But what was most helpful for me were the Re user research classes in the management classes, because I knew less about them. And they've really helped me as I transitioned into my newer role. So I would also consider Elizabeth Hurley: learning more about expanding your knowledge in more than one focus. Samantha Moyer: and and mine might be very simple, but I think going to as an undergrad. I was a communications student, and as a graduate student I'm communications, and sometimes we do get a lot of Samantha Moyer: light or a shade towards being communications Major. But if you can think back to when you've received a really bad email, or when you've received really bad communication from a colleague or a manager. Communication is everything. Samantha Moyer: You know. It really does make an impact when you send an email to somebody and you send it in a giant paragraph versus, you know, building some things or bulleting, and just making it easier for people to understand, you know, making sure, like like Zack said, those kind of like softer skills of just knowing. You know, when you send an email, how is it coming across? What does the tone does this person know you? Do they not know you. Samantha Moyer: you know, making sure that they're understanding how wh, what you're asking, and it's not coming across, as you know. Samantha Moyer: the way you don't want it to. So you really clear communication and tone is super super big. And I think a lot of people kind of overlook that, that they can type out an email. But it really does. A lot of time go a lot a lot deeper, and it'll save you a lot of back and forth. If you're really clear and concise Samantha Moyer: and kind when you go to your when you go through your emails and response, people Sara Zarro: awesome. Thank you, Zach, do you want to address one of the questions? Zach Cohen: Yeah, I'm just typing an answer to Faria's question, cause it was directly to me. Zach Cohen: If that's okay. Zach Cohen: But I guess I can also like just quickly share safari asked how I allocate time if I have to work on different projects at the same time, and I think this can kind of speak to all of us who do that. So I was saying that it it is difficult like. I still struggle with Zach Cohen: prioritizing things sometimes, and balancing these different projects that are really long term versus short-term and etc. But think, being really critical with prioritization helps a lot, and and Liz helps me a lot with, you know she has a higher level view of Zach Cohen: the landscape of you know of our projects. So making relying on your team and and helping the prioritization, making sure things that are have sooner deadlines are taken care of first and yeah. But I do still like struggle with that as well. But I appreciate that question. Hope that yeah. And I think that's very common, because, as Zach mentioned, for the only once inner Peggy Recinos: in our area in our in the hospital that are doing what we do. And so we get back, you know. There's just a lot of stuff in the in the background, the backlog and for me. I think it's just aligning and making sure that. You have your priorities straight, and that has to do a lot with your manager. So Liz sets that very clearly for us, and also. What things? If there's a fire, you know, sometimes you just have to drop everything and do that but also Peggy Recinos: taking a hard look at, there could be 3 fires, but which one will be put out quickly, which one needs 2 h, which one needs 3 h, you know, and doing it that way as well. A lot of times. II just take the the ones that'll need some thought and put that to the second half of the day when things quiet down sometimes, unfortunately a little bit after 5, but get through like the quicker ones that I can just kick out. Peggy Recinos: you know and put out the fire right away. But it is constant juggling Katrina Cook: effort. So. Katrina Cook: and that goes back to what Sam was saying about communication, which I'll just echo as well like Katrina Cook: you're gonna have so many things to do from so many people that think that they're the most important one which sometimes they are but Katrina Cook: you have to be able to manage it in a way that you're doing the best that you can to provide them with exactly the right answer, and like the most fulfilled way. And so you need to tell them whether or not that's going to take longer it's better to tell them that it's going to be delayed than to share after the fact that, like or like, send it later. Communication is key in that. And people respect that and understand Sara Zarro: awesome. I'm going to pose this question. This is a good one. So from the projects you work on, do they come to you from administration in a top-down style, in top-down fashion? Or do you have a process for finding pain points in the hospital system? So which way, you know. Where do projects come from? Peggy Recinos: That's a good question, I think, can answer that a lot, because I feel like it comes both ways like for me, I would say, Yeah, II love that. I feel like this group is more proactive. In finding the pain points and being, you know, proactive about what can be improved. I think that's great. Peggy Recinos: And I've been here a while. So I have a a backlog of applications that I've created, and that, you know, is that pointed that out earlier. You know they always need to be enhanced. There's always redesigns forever. So then, so then I get it from that side as well. But so to answer the question, it's both sides. Peggy Recinos: But anyone else can elaborate. Katrina Cook: Yeah, in regards the pain points piece, II think. Yes, administrative down for sure, and being proactive and kind of considering what's going on. But in an equity lens as well. You want to talk to the people that are experiencing the problem, to understand what is happening and what they think the solution is, and and kind of bring them into the discussion to come up with next steps. As opposed to just Katrina Cook: thinking about it on your own again. We're like, I'm the only person in Edi, which is not appropriate like, we need more people involved in this. And so every time I'm working on a project, I'm talking to the people to ask them what is going on. Why is this a pain point? Let's talk through it. Let's brainstorm. Let's figure out a solution. Also, at the hospital they built out. I said, I work at Idha. And so the accelerator program has a pain point Katrina Cook: like hospital staff submit their pain points. And then they are thinking about novel solutions or connecting them to existing solutions Katrina Cook: for those pain points. So we are very collaborative, internally within our within our system. Sara Zarro: awesome. And this one's actually more for Katrina and Zack. So how are you working together to have inclusive usability tests? So the person says, I've seen news lately regarding more inclusive clinical trials. And I'm wondering how these efforts look in the ux space. Zach Cohen: Yeah. So in inclusivity and accessibility are like really big focuses for all of us but and especially working at a pediatric hospital. With different groups of people who, not all our native English speakers not all have computer desktops. These are. Zach Cohen: you know, really important things to consider. So II work with Katrina a lot on, or I learn a lot from Katrina on, you know, thinking about who are we? Are we missing anybody from this conversation? Is there anybody that we're that we're not including based upon, you know, not even Zach Cohen: consciously. Just, you know, generally based on how Zach Cohen: these things have typically run in the past. When you run a test, you wanna make sure that? You're using proper language. That's not super difficult for people to understand. You maintain a certain, you know, grade level. So there's the like flesh Kincaid scale of legibility for for reading levels. Whether you're testing on a mobile device on a desktop device, I do a lot of in person testing as well. Talking to patients, talking to families. Zach Cohen: and making sure that we have a really good wide range of of demographic representation, and not focusing on what's easiest to get always. But you know, making sure that whoever is actually going to be using or affected by these solutions is the people that we're testing with and in their environment, if possible. So, Katrina, you can add anything else to that. But Katrina Cook: yeah, I think you said you basically covered it. But there's a mix of standard protocol that we're looking at, you know. Is, is it aligned with the Ada. Is it? Katrina Cook: accessible? Do we have, like you said? Is our community of interest diverse and inclusive of the current and potential awesome children's patience and families. And then also because we hit so many different things, and we reach so many different things. Each product may have specific needs Katrina Cook: and specific considerations. Someone spoke about remote, patient, monitoring pulse. Oxometers have in the literature been said to not read through different levels of melanin and skin at times. And so you wanna make sure you're considering that. But you wouldn't bring that conversation into something like a virtual visit where that is inappropriate. So a mix of like standards that we're always starting with. But we're also going to talk specifically about what we're what we're looking at here. A mix between the literature and talking to the community and the clinicians that are associated with it. Sara Zarro: Awesome. Thank you so much. We have one final question for anyone here. So what does a tough day look like? And what's your experience? What's your favorite experience? So far. Zach Cohen: II think for a lot of us a tough day is just one with endless meetings. Where you kind of can't get any actual work done. And you're just kind of going meeting to meeting the those those days happen from time to time, some for some of us more than others. Zach Cohen: my favorite experience so far. Like, I said. I love like going to the clinics and the hospitals, and like doing tests physically. So I've done several of those with, you know. Zach Cohen: Amazon Alexa in the patient rooms, going and talk to families and interviewing them about those experiences that's really cool to like. See that in person and kind of get an insider look into the hospital, and how it, how it's running from an inpatient perspective. Samantha Moyer: I think mine would be communicating things out to patients and families via all different types of communication methods. So whether it be through posters or through Samantha Moyer: email, I really like being able to communicate out to our patients and families to make sure that they understand and kind of going through the process of Samantha Moyer: putting through a couple of different people. Just to get their feedback and see ultimately where we land. So that's probably been my favorite. Peggy Recinos: Oh, I really like, oh, sorry, Peggy, go ahead. That's okay, go ahead. Elizabeth Hurley: II really like to see when we make changes, that it has been improved, that that the data looks better. You can see there's a difference in that. We have made an improvement. Peggy Recinos: I think a a tough day is one filled with meetings, as I mentioned, but also, if I'm just having a design block, and that stinks. You just have to work through it. A great day is like learning about a new product or prod, you know, problem and being fired up about it, and just like learning something you just didn't know existed before. And then and then also finding a solution for a set problem. So those are. Those are 2 great things Katrina Cook: we can say, really quick to to round it out. I know we're at 3. But I think that it can be so huge. When you're in this field that is collaborative to have people that are also excited, to talk and to think about solutions and to to brainstorm with you, especially in regards to health equity. It's it's kind of Katrina Cook: all I care about. And so when we're when we're in a meeting and we're we're talking. And it's like, Oh, my gosh! I really care about making this difference. Oh, I noticed this happened. Da da, da, and it flows. It can be really exciting. I would like to just say to everyone who's on this meeting, that as you get into the the career fields. It is so important to advocate for work life balance. We're talking a lot about like endless meetings and sometimes needing to stay late, and these things happen. But it's on. Katrina Cook: It's on the system, and and the manager and everyone would list has been great. But also it's it's on you to like when you get in there. Advocate for yourself, and and make sure that you, you maintain a good work, life balance that keeps you feeling Katrina Cook: good moving forward, or else you you won't be able to continue. Sara Zarro: That's fantastic. Thank you so much to all of you, Peggy, Katrina. Elizabeth Zack and Sam Sam Sara Zarro: Samantha for being here today really really appreciate it. Super insightful. And we had quite a few attendees online. I will tell you so Sara Zarro: thank you so much. Thank you for having us for your time.

Hot in Health: The Human Side of Digital Health — A UX Perspective - November 14, 2023

From zm_chb November 14th, 2023

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Boston Children’s Hospital is ranked among the best pediatric hospitals in the nation, dedicated to advancing health care for children around the world. Boston Children’s serves thousands of children and families each year, committed to supporting users through all platforms. Join their Digital Health team, including Zach Cohen, MSHFID ’23, to learn more about the human side of technology through the lens of User Experience (UX).

The Hot in Health speaker series has been developed by the Center for Health and Business, to address topics that are timely, relevant and important at the intersection of health and business. Invited guests will discuss their career paths, their current work and the importance of integrating for impact to solve problems in the health industry, providing real-world examples of business’s role in the health industry and spreading awareness of the career opportunities available.

The Center for Health and Business engages multiple perspectives to address complex challenges in the business of health. We catalyze change in the health industry through impactful education, actionable research and meaningful collaborations.

Appears In: Center for Health and Business