Embark for Veterinarians: PIMS Integration

OVERVIEW

Embark for Veterinarians is a web app that enables veterinary practices to easily incorporate genetic testing for dogs into their daily workflow. With this product, users can efficiently manage patient genetic testing by quickly adding new patients, checking the status of swabs being processed, ordering more swabs if necessary, and seeing which patients have results ready. This streamlined process helps veterinary practices provide personalized care for their patients by providing insights into breed ancestry, potential health risks, and genetic traits. By integrating genetic testing into their workflow, veterinary practices can improve the lives of their patients and deliver better care.

CHALLENGES

Build an integration so Embark for Veterinarians can be used with existing veterinary PIMS (patient information management systems).
Design an intuitive and easy-to-use interface for importing necessary patient information from an electronic medical record in to the Embark dashboard.
Design a simplified genetic health results summary that gets placed into a patient’s electronic medical record.

DISCOVERY

Understanding the user journey for Embark for Vets and PIMS users was crucial for identifying pain points and designing an effective integration. To achieve this, I conducted interviews with veterinary practices to understand their current workflows and how they manage patient data. This unearthed valuable insights like:

Uploading Embark health results into a patient’s’ medical record was time consuming.
Manual entry of patient information in to the Embark for Vets dashboard led to errors and sometimes mismatching data.
Users still needed the ability to manually enter patient information and didn’t want to rely solely on importing patient records

Existing PIMS flow

Existing myEV dashboard flow

These insights led to a clear vision for the integration:

Simplified patient import: Streamline patient information flow by allowing users to directly import from their PIMS. This caters to specific client needs and saves time.
Enhanced clarity: Clearly distinguish synced and imported patients to streamline communication and avoid confusion.
Flexible workflow: Implement an "unsync" option for PIMS-imported patients, allowing practices to adapt the feature to their unique workflow.

WIREFRAMING

After conducting extensive user research on the user journeys of Embark and PIMS users, I used the insights gained to quickly iterate a few ideas. I explored the idea of utilizing a dialog versus a drawer, leveraging my team’s and stakeholder input.

Dialog with toggle

Dialog with patient info

Drawer with toggle

Drawer with patient info

HIGH FIDELITY WIREFRAMES

Balancing user needs and technical feasibility, we landed on a design that utilized a drawer on the right hand side of the page with a toggle, allowing users to choose between import patient information or manually entering the data. The drawer pattern was used in another feature of the myEV dashboard so bringing it into the integration created continuity throughout the product.

Ultimately, the proposed designs allow users to import patient information from an electronic medical record into the Embark dashboard. When results are ready, a genetic health summary is directly placed into that patient’s medical record in the PIMS.

Add a new patient

Import a patient's record

Patient record ready to import

Enter new patient information manually

Patient swab successfully activated

Patients imported from a PIMS have a 'synced' chip

USER TESTING

To ensure the PIMS integration was intuitive and easy to use, I conducted design reviews and concept testing sessions with veterinary professionals, which helped create an open dialogue and allowed me to gather invaluable feedback.

The sessions were structured around open discussions and interactive prototypes. I had participants perform specific tasks, such as adding a new patient and activating a swab. By sharing the prototype and asking users to be vocal about about their expectations and actions, I aimed to identify any pain points.

Together, we were able to unearth some minor pain points and align on important copy that catered specifically to user needs.

IMPACT

Integrating the ability to import patient information from a PIMS into the Embark for Vets dashboard significantly improved efficiency for our beta tester. So far, this has resulted in:

Automated workflows that reduced errors and guaranteed accuracy.
Reduced manual effort: New patients can now be swiftly added by importing data from patient medical records, reducing manual data entry by 13%.

NEXT STEPS

PIMS integration beta testing with a key veterinary practice is underway. Initial feedback shows smooth data import, easy result access, and minimal pain points. Follow-up conversations will capture further insights before a wider release.