Capstone Project
Melanoma Clinical Trials
The process of matching patients with melanoma to suitable clinical trials is inefficient, time-consuming, and inaccessible for oncologists.
To address this issue, we collaborated with Dr. Bryan Carroll to undertake a redesign of Clinicaltrials.gov, the main website for searching for clinical trials. The redesign provides oncologists with better-curated trial recommendations, ultimately saving them valuable time.
MY ROLE
UX Researcher, UX Designer
DURATION
January 2023 - May 2023
CLIENT
Dr. Bryan Carroll, University Hospitals of Cleveland
TEAM
Saloni Gandhi, Namita Rao, Sruti Srinidhi, Wenqing Yin
Project Inspiration + Goals
Clinical trials are the only way to treat advanced melanoma, yet they are so difficult to find.
Our client, Dr. Carroll, had a patient who was diagnosed with melanoma. After unsuccessful surgeries, the only hope for treatment were clinical trials. However, clinical trials were difficult to filter through on websites like clinicaltrials.gov. It was only through a personal connection that Dr. Carroll was able to find a suitable clinical trial 3 weeks later.
After seven weeks of back and forth to discuss the patient's eligibility for enrollment, it turned out that the patient was no longer eligible to start experimental trials and soon after passed away. Unfortunately, this is just one of the thousands of patient journeys like this. This led us to the following research goals:
🚀 Obtain a comprehensive understanding of the current process through which patients get connected to clinical trials.
🚀 Identify the existing gaps in the tools and resources used to find clinical trials for melanoma patients.
Competitive Analysis
Current solutions are designed with commercial purposes in mind and did not prioritize the interests of patients.
In our analysis of the four most popular applications for finding and connecting patients to clinical trials, we discovered that none of them had the patient's best interests or well-being as their primary focus. For instance, the primary tool, clinicaltrials.gov, solely serves as a study reporting tool and does not provide assistance to patients in the process of joining a clinical trial.
User Interviews
Developing mock-patients facilitated the adoption of a focused storytelling approach during interviews.
During the 9 interviews with dermatologists and oncologists, we asked them to questions revolving around their current process of finding suitable clinical trials for their patients, such as:
📌 "Walk me through the last time you had to refer a patient to a clinical trial, from consultation to trial connection."
📌 "Let's say this is a new internal melanoma clinical trial, how do you bring about awareness to the clinical trial?"
Synthesis
Oncologists find it challenging to connect patients to clinical trials due to a lack of viable solutions, leading them to rely on internal networks or personal connections.
Through affinity diagramming of the interview results and research findings, three key insights were revealed:
💡 The primary resources utilized to access clinical trials are word of mouth and the website clinicaltrials.gov.
💡 Oncologists heavily rely on their internal networks, which may not always provide the best care tailored to the patient's needs.
💡 The process of locating and enrolling a patient into a clinical trial can be a time-consuming endeavor, taking several months.
The Challenge
How might we increase the visibility of different approaches to oncologists so they can determine the right clinical trials and medical centers for melanoma patients faster?
Ideation
We generated 40 diverse ideas through the "crazy 8's" method and collaborative brainstorming sessions.
As a team, we discussed the feasibility and value of each idea, which led us to our final set of 4 concepts. We storyboarded these concepts to effectively communicate the ideas to the client.
Pivot
Feedback from speed-dating the 4 storyboards with 7 oncologists led to a pivot in a new direction.
The extra time commitment needed for oncologists to use each solution was a major concern. Therefore, we decided to improve an existing tool, clinicaltrials.gov, to limit the amount of learning and handling needed.
Additional research
I conducted an in-depth analysis of clinicaltrials.gov to locate origin of issues and opportunities for improvement.
Wireframing
Ideated a new solution based on feasibility, user-centeredness, and value proposition.
Addressing the concerns I found during analyzing Clinicaltrials.gov and the insights we discovered through the storyboard speed-dating sessions, we generated a new and innovative solution that demonstrates high value for oncologists, ensuring alignment with their needs and preferences.
Concept testing
100% of participants stated the solution helps oncologists search for and apply for clinical trials
Showing our concept to our target users during the 6 interviews allowed us to assess its usefulness and identify any thoughts or concerns they might have. Concerns such as trusting the Al recommender system was a topic of discussion and helped our team take this into consideration in future ideations.
“100% I would use this platform”
“[This solution] would definitely target the issue we face”
“Show me the trials that did not match all recommender systems criteria”
Mid-fidelity prototype
I lead the team in parallel prototyping to explore diverse design opportunities.
After presenting our designs to each other, we reached a consensus and finalized a flow/prototype.
Design System
Creating a design system helped ensure consistency with clinicaltrials.gov's current UI.
We developed a design system to align with Clinicaltrials.gov's UI, ensuring consistency and facilitating a smoother integration with their ongoing modernization efforts. This system also guided the creation of high-fidelity screens, further ensuring uniformity and coherence throughout the design process.
High-fidelity Prototype
Iterated over prototype based on user feedback to create a clickable high-fidelity prototype
Advanced clinical trial search
💡 Additional filters and questions creates more curated results
💡Questions organised into sections allows for easier and faster navigation
Recommend clinical trials
💡 Match percentage helps oncologists select trials
💡 'Criteria Match' and 'Criteria Non-Match' columns allow oncologists to see why or why not a clinical trial is a match, saving time from manually discovering this information
Clinical trial details page
💡 Text organized into sections allows for easier scanning of information
💡 The interactive eligibility criteria checklist assists oncologists in efficiently determining their patients' eligibility
💡 A compare trial feature eases the decision-making process
Clinical trials application
💡 Ability to apply directly to clinical trials with access to contact information
💡 Single pre-generated application for multiple clinical trials
💡 Quicken the eligibility determination process by making the Match Percentage transparent to the trial coordinator
Reflection
Next steps
📍 Pitch solution to clinicaltrials.gov
The clinicaltrials.gov modernization team is dedicated to redesigning clinicaltrials.gov to be more usable. Our client will take over our designs and pitch the solution for them to implement into clinicaltrials.gov.
📍 Scale across all cancers beyond melanoma
The solution has been made specifically for melanoma but is applicable and has the opportunity to be designed for all diseases beyond melanoma.
📍 Fully build out the ML algorithm
The current ML algorithm is a proof of concept and only uses a few user inputs. Building it fully out will further filter down the clinical trials and provide oncologists with the best recommendations.
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