Making Symptom Reporting Less Overwhelming at UPMC
ROLES
UX Research, Product Concept, Visual Design, Prototyping
COLLABORATORS
3 Experience Designers
DURATION
12 Weeks, 2025
TOOLS
Figma, After Effects, Illustrator
PROBLEM
Forms forms forms!
Like any medical healthcare center, the UPMC Oncology Center presents multiple, lengthy forms to their patients.
What wasn’t working
UX Audits, Expert Interviews + Discovery Workshop
THE RESULT?
Only 57% of patients receiving chemotherapy fill them out
Additionally, only 32.7% of new patients complete the symptom screening forms. (UPMC-Magee Gynecologic Oncology Patient Snapshot)
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From UX audits, 6 interviews, and 40+ survey responses, we saw that people had problems with shopping, but even after that.
With this, we asked
How can we bring clarity, ease and efficiency to the symptom screening process so that patient concerns are addressed in a timely manner
A personalized, unified form on the My UPMC app
The Projected Outcome?
SOLUTION HIGHLIGHTS
PROCESS
How is the data collected?
ISSUES + STRATEGIES
Overwhelming number of questions → Streamline them
Conducting co-design workshops with healthcare providers, medical assistants, patients, and social workers helped us understand that different questions are relevant in different phases of their journey
High-Priority Symptoms, Low Visibility
Providers want to know about urgent symptoms first, but these get buried in the list.
The Journey Changes, But the Questions Don’t
The symptoms that matter evolve throughout the cancer journey but they still are provided the same form
Not every question needs to be asked every time
Not every question is relevant before every visit: For eg: questions about address or mobility may not be relevant always
1. Too many channels for questions → Integrate them
UPMC is prioritizing adoption of the MyUPMC app, with parts of symptom intake already in the app. So we streamlined the experience by consolidating all questions into the same platform.
2. Uncategorized line of questioning → bring structure
Using LATCH, we grouped symptoms by organ system, journey phase, and patient needs - surfacing only the most relevant questions in a way that made sense to them.
Defining decision flows for each phase of the journey
Representing symptoms in the form
3. Patients don’t know where forms go→ Give actionable feedback
Summary page with resources
It reminds patients what to bring up during appointments and provides symptom-specific support.
Prompt to get assistance
Emergency symptoms require immediate action, so we added a real-time prompt when patients report them.
OUTRO
This was one of the most fulfilling projects I’ve worked on. It taught me as much about people as it did about the complexities of healthcare design.
What I learnt:
Facilitating Workshops
I learnt how to facilitate and improvise trust-building conversations in clinical workshops
Designing Within Constraints
Navigated healthcare regulations, EMR limitations, and clinic workflows with adaptability
Resourceful Execution:
Worked with limited time and tools, filling gaps proactively to keep momentum and impact.
Learning to Lead
I learnt how to guide team efforts across research planning, synthesis, and stakeholder alignment.