Mobile Blood Donation Software

Orthogonal worked with a leading medical device company to design and develop electronic blood draw data software designed to guide the phlebotomist through, and capture information during, the collection process to ensure compliance, improve efficiencies, and reduce errors.

Challenge

Provide phlebotomists with the ability to record and monitor the entire blood donation or apheresis processes, without continually breaking out of the process to walk to a cart mounted tablet PC.

Approach

We focused on providing phlebotomists with the ability to record and monitor the entire blood donation or apheresis process using a hand held device rather than having to continually break out of the process to walk to a cart mounted tablet PC running the Prelude software.

The design effort included identifying the various user types (personas), modeling their environment, and defining and prioritizing their task flows, and creating an interface to maximize efficiency in terms of navigation and interaction.

Based on Orthogonal’s research and employing usability best practices the design team created a software application for an ergonomic handheld device with real-time wireless access to the Prelude database. Designing a handheld application is different than a typical desktop application. Both the screen size and the physical movement of the user add complexity, as well as a need for multiple input techniques. As a result, Orthogonal incorporated several iterations of user testing throughout the design process to insure user acceptance and make any adjustment necessary.

The system includes Android tablets and smartphones, HTML5 applications, web services, HIPAA compliant server infrastructure. Important elements of the application include:

• Simple login scan function that makes it easy to move from patent to patient and eliminates the need for manual data entry
• A new process-driven work flow that matches the way a phlebotomist works
• Missing data is clearly visible and errors immediately identified
• Focus is on patient and procedure; not data entry
• Audio, color and large icons were all used to increase usability and enhance efficiency

Outcome

Through streamlined data capture, flexible workflow driven processes, and a real-time active donor status, the  phlebotomy data collection solution is intuitive and easy to deploy with tablet handheld devices, which helps to improve the experience for both the donor and the user.