UX Research & Product Design at Oak Street Health

Diagnostic Pathways

Role: Lead Product Designer (UX Research & Product Design)

‍Problem: In our value based care workflow: suspecting today, providers and scribes are jumping between notes from past visits, test results, and even outside hospital records, trying to connect the dots.

‍Outcome: I led the product design of a unified, smart diagnostic pathway: a system that guides users/clinicians through the necessary steps for accurate project diagnosis and triage.

Goals

For us, success meant three things:

Increase suspect addressal and documentation rates

This means that suspects can get addressed and documented without delays.

Decrease time of suspects in pending status

Important actions show up right when they’re needed, so patients like Maria don’t fall through the cracks

Reduce the cognitive load of interpreting data

Ultimately, it leads to less cognitive load for care teams, and more clarity.

Discovery Research

Let’s start with a story. Imagine Maria: she’s 68, living with high blood pressure. She comes in one day feeling short of breath. Her doctor thinks the symptoms might be the start of heart failure, but the information they need is scattered all over the medical record. They’re jumping between notes from past visits, test results, and even outside hospital records, trying to connect the dots.

This happens all the time. When we spoke with 12 primary care providers and 8 medical scribes at our clinics during discovery research, we kept hearing the same things:

Navigational Uncertainty

Providers and scribes aren’t always sure where they are in the diagnostic process.

Missed Milestones

Important steps, like ordering a heart test or recording a diagnosis, often get missed or delayed.

Fragmented Data

And because patient records come from multiple places, no one has a clear view of what’s already been done.

Key Metrics

Increase suspect addressal and documentation rates so that providers can move faster. This means that suspects can get addressed and documented without delays.

Decrease time of suspects in follow-up status. Important actions show up right when they’re needed, so patients like Maria don’t fall through the cracks.

Reduce the cognitive load of interpreting data. Ultimately, it leads to less cognitive load for care teams, and more clarity.

Design Jam

To get there, the team got together to brainstorm a new kind of pathway that guides the care team step by step without adding extra work.

Usability Testing Research Goals:

Does it clearly communicate what has already been completed and what still needs to be done?

Does it support accurate recall and recognition of key test results (e.g., BNP, Echo)?

Does it help care teams determine the appropriate next step?

Does it clearly ambiguity around clinical documentation criteria?

Key Findings

Clinicians naturally focused on finishing the steps that were still open. Suggested actions were especially helpful when tied to new test results. And overall, they said the pathway supported their thinking, and it wasn’t just another data dump.

Interoperability that drives continuity of care.

The aim of diagnostic pathways is to give providers greater clarity and support decisions that move care forward. Returning to our patient Maria’s case: her care would no longer looks like puzzle pieces scattered across visits. The pathway brings it all together as a clear continuity of care that her doctors can see and act on as a team.