Patient Intake
Helping doctors and patients make the most of their time together
Design Lead for Virtual Care · Oscar Health
Our medical team was spending a lot of time collecting the patient’s basic medical information—roughly 30% of each appointment.
At the start of each visit, medical staff would tediously update information that the patient shared verbally. This took away valuable minutes from the patient’s time with their doctor, and the inefficiency was a barrier to scaling our practice.
Goal No. 1
Increase efficiency
Reduce time spent gathering basic medical information from the patient
Shadowing visits and speaking with medical staff helped us understand opportunity areas.
This research helped us define the types of information our medical staff was gathering and which parts we could make more efficient or remove entirely.
In all screenshots, any real patient data has been swapped out to protect patient privacy
We chose to start with the most important and time consuming part: medications.
The frequency with which questions were asked, combined with how long they take to answer each time, helped us determined which data types would be most valuable to start with.
I explored how (and when) we might get medication information from patients.
We wanted to encourage a high completion rate without causing excess dropoff in the appointment booking flow. I explored different possible touchpoints: During booking? Immediately after? Later on, the day before the visit? We weighed the pros and cons of each option.
I successfully advocated for a cross-team approach to ensure a cohesive patient/doctor experience.
Patient-provided information is only valuable if medical staff can utilize it. I made sure that we considered the end-to-end journey: what would patients be able to see/edit? How would their updates be shown to medical staff? What would happen if medical staff made further changes?
A/B Test Results
The new medications feature significantly reduced time spent updating the patient’s chart.
80%
Reduction in manual edits
To medications in the patient’s chart
40%
Reduction in manual additions
To medications in the patient’s chart
Solution
Now, patients can verify their medications before the appointment.
Pre-population makes it easy, even for new patients.
Whenever possible, we use the patient’s insurance claims data to pre-populate their medications list.
Removing, adding, or editing takes just a few taps.
Dynamic prompting ensures high completion and accuracy—without increasing dropoff.
Our solution helps patients and doctors make the most of each appointment.
Next, we’ll build on this foundation by enabling patients to complete mental health screenings before their visit. By engaging patients asynchronously and thinking beyond the traditional appointment, we can improve clinical outcomes, patient experience, and provider efficiency all at once.
Team
Sarah Mitrano
Design Lead
Jason Li
Product Manager
Sujan Patel
Engineering Lead
Nick Trentacoste
Engineer
Josh Lewis
Engineer
Sydney Choi
Designer, doctor-facing tool