Designing Human-Centered Radiology Systems: A Product Design Framework for Patients
Keywords:
Radiology, Human-Centered Design, Product Design, Patient Experience, Service Design, Interaction Design, Social Design, Healthcare InnovationAbstract
While radiology is a vital part of modern healthcare, patient experiences in radiology environments continue to be fraught with anxiety, communication barriers, lengthy wait times, and poor access. Although there has been great progress in diagnostic precision and efficiency through the use of technology, far less attention has been paid to the integration of human-centered design elements into radiology systems. This study suggests and validates a holistic human-centered product design framework for radiology services, consisting of four complementary dimensions: Medical Design, Interaction Design, Service Design and Social Design. A mixed methods research design was employed, which consisted of interviews with 20 patients and 10 radiology technicians, a survey of 100 patients, and a pilot study in a medium-sized urban hospital. Qualitative results showed that 65% of the patients felt a high level of pre-scan anxiety and 70% of the technicians reported usability and communication problems in the current systems. When asked quantitative answers, 72% of patients said they did not understand the explanations given during the procedure and 68% were not happy with the waiting time. The statistical analysis also showed a significant correlation between the quality of communication and the level of anxiety of the patients. Four interventions were developed and piloted based on these findings: the use of ergonomic equipment, the virtual reality orientation before a patient's procedure, the implementation of patient-friendly layered reporting systems, the use of digital workflow management tools and the adoption of inclusive multilingual communication strategies. Results from the pilot implementation showed a 35% decrease in anxiety for patients, a 42% increase in understanding of communication and a 28% increase in workflow efficiency. In addition, 80% of the families participating in the program had positive feedback from the child-friendly imaging environments created. The findings illustrate that the application of human centered product design approaches within radiology services can have a profound impact on wellness, trust, access and service performance for patients. The proposed framework provides a multidisciplinary approach that is scalable and patient-centric to make radiology a technology based discipline into a patient-centric healthcare ecosystem.
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