FOUNDATION MEDICINE

The Next Generation of Reporting

Transforming 10 years of data into clinically actionable information for oncologists.

Our core product offering had been a PDF report test results for over a decade. In this project, we designed an interactive experience for viewing results that met our users increasing digital needs and enabled oncologists to find clinically actionable information quicker so that they could make treatment decisions with more confidence.
Oncologists
Care Team Members
- Evolve our core product
- Integrate into digital/EMR workflows
- Create value for oncologists
UX Researcher
Lead Designer (me)
Product Manager
Engineering Team
Clinical Reporting SMEs
Cross-Functional Stakeholders
9 months
Discovery research, user testing, design & build. Launched in 2022

What We Built

Before

Therapies ordered based on alphabetization of findings
Therapies with resistance that should be avoided appearing scattered
Therapies appearing multiple times

Before

Findings arranged alphabetically
Important content spread across multiple sections and pages

After

Distilled 3 sections of information
Used icons to represent the most sought-after pieces of information
Stacked ranked findings so that clinically actionable findings are at the top

After

Created a therapies-first view
Stacked ranked based on level of evidence
Solved duplication by allowing therapies to be associated with more than one finding

Challenges

Breaking Our Own Structure

The organization system used in our PDF report was created for a static user experience. In order to bring the knowledge and scientific expertise into an interactive one we needed to rethink how we organized, presented, and grouped data.

What I Did:

Synthesized research information with the UX Researcher into 3 mental models

Created information systems with SMEs from the Clinical Reporting Team that were clinically correct and matched the mental models we developed

Cross Functional Collaboration

The project was already underway when I joined the team and we had engineering resources that were idle and stakeholders that weren’t able to align.

What I Did:

Divided the work so that Engineering was unblocked and could start building foundational parts of the experience
Collaborated with cross-functional partners to align on product goals

Capturing Our Target Users

This project started out as a directive from our C-Suite to evolve our product but our target users, oncologists, were not the primary users for our digital portal where the experience would live.

What I Did:

Worked with Sales and Customer Experience teams to understand why oncologists weren’t using our portal
Developed training materials for sales

Process

Research: Defining Mental Models

We spoke with oncologists who were familiar with our reports about what information they were looking for, how they used the report, and pain points. We found there were three different mental models for how they approached our report.

Therapy Centric

I am looking for therapies that are goingto be approved by insurance.

Foundation: Design Principals

1. Avoid unsatisfying clicks - No more than 3 clicks to get to the finest level of detail (avoid frustrating navigation/unsatisfying clicks)

2. Utilize progressive disclosure - The base level of information should tell the user enough that they want to click and they know what they are clicking on, while also revealing enough information that I don’t have to click to understand what’s most important.

3. Reduce the cognitive load - the interactive experience should link together pieces of the report that in the printed form place additional cognitive load on the user to navigate. ie. page number references, see X section for additional information.