Epilepsy Program at the University of Virginia
Patient Data Collection Form Redesign
PROJECT SYNOPSIS
The Epilepsy Program at the University of Virginia currently uses a paper form, created in the 1990s, in order to record patient data during clinical check-ups. The data is then transferred into an Access database for UVA hospital's data analysts to further research within the field. This system lends to an inefficient transfer of data, creates a poor reproduction of seizure trends for doctor review, and discourages the potential collection of more patient information.
With the creation of a medical patient review website, the data collection process could be streamlined within the UVA clinic, providing live updates of information, allowing for deeper analysis, and increasing the productivity of both doctors and data analysts within the field.
DESIGN TEAM'S GOALS
1. Create scalable modular web design
2. Mimic sequence of events of patient visit in data presentation order
3. Allow for doctor updates throughout the visit that produce realtime updates on patient information
4. Emphasize correlation between patient seizure frequency and medication
5. Streamline data presented
THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENT
THE FIRST DRAFT
PRELIMINARY GRAPH DESIGNS
Multiple graph styles were considered, focusing on the ease of cognitive information processing. The final product would be used by doctors, quickly reviewing the graphs to view changes in seizure frequency. For this reason, the graphs created were to present information on frequency, dates of clinical visits, periods of no data entry, and distinction of maximum value among different seizure types that could be interpreted with minimal effort. Both discrete and continuous models were considered to emphasize this information. The current system also stores all data within Microsoft Access. Due to these parameters, the design team produced graphs within the capabilities of the Microsoft system to allow for instant integration of the product.
THE FINAL DESIGN
Page 1: The "Home" page of the website is the "Patient Summary" tab. This page provides the doctor with patient identification information, recent patient history, and the most significant health details. The intention of the design was to allow doctors to understand the key details of the patient's medical status immediately. It also allows for updates to be made to patient file in "Updates" sidebar on the left side of the window. The doctor can easily input values into the yellow boxes to record the patient's current seizure frequency and current medications.
Page 2: The second page is the "Seizure Frequency Trends" tab. This page maintains the "Updates" sidebar on the left, but allows doctors to clearly see the correlation between a patient's seizure frequency history and medication history in the graphic display on the right. The graphs for seizure frequency history were selected because the shading allows for easy identification of trends in the data. These graphs can be customized by time period displayed and order in which each seizure type is displayed. The visual for medications, the grey bars at the bottom of the right side of the page, allow doctors to see the time period over which a patient was taking particular medications, and how that affected their seizure frequency history.
Page 3: The "Medication & Treatment" tab features a holistic history of a patient's medication, EEG, Imaging, and Video/EEG information on the right side of the page. The "Comments" section of the "Medication Information" and "Imaging History" tables can be expanded to include longer descriptions if necessary, which can be seen in the three dots at the right side of these cells. The "Updates" tab can still be found on the left to allow the doctor to make changes to the current treatment plan if necessary.
Page 4: The "Seizure History" tab shows the complete history of a patient's seizure frequency on the right side. In the final design, we did not want to compromise any of the original information available to the doctor's on the data summary sheet. The scroll bar allows for a number of entries over many years. The "Updates" tab can still be found on the left to allow the doctor to make changes to the current treatment plan if necessary.
