Product Type
Responsive web app
Role
UX and UI Design Lead
Context
The goal of this project was to reduce the time physicians spend on administrative tasks. Our physician clients were eager to apply new AI chat capabilities to their daily workflow to streamline busywork while ensuring compliance with HIPAA regulations. Although they had many ideas for innovative features and a full Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, they wanted a product launched quickly, so we agreed to focus on an MVP that prioritized the most impactful features.
We conducted user interviews with physicians across diverse environments to identify their most pressing pain points and determine where we could have the greatest impact with a viable, desirable, and feasible solution that could be validated with an MVP.
"Pippen has been an absolute game changer for me in regards to my clinical efficiency. My documentation time has been reduced by at least 75%. I can't say enough about how significant a shift it's made for me."
- Dr. Thomas Debssou (user and customer)
Mobile screens showing the transcription flow.
Process
User research revealed five key areas where AI could reduce cognitive burden and administrative time:
• SOAP notes (appointment summaries)
• Writing referrals
• Writing prescriptions
• Differential diagnosis support
• Billing and diagnostic codes
Billing and diagnostic codes were an area no competitors had addressed, creating an opportunity for us to differentiate and offer unique value. We also discovered variation in how (typing vs. dictation) and when (before, during, or after appointments) physicians completed tasks. These insights informed the user flow and product features to be flexible enough to accommodate different workflow preferences.
User interviews also indicated most physicians primarily used desktop devices, with considerable variation in hardware and operating systems. As a result, I advocated for building a responsive web app over a native app so that it could be compatible with any screen size or device. Using Material UI and collaborating closely with developers, I designed an MVP that allowed for rapid validation.
"Such thoughtful and beautiful designs. We're so excited to see it in action."
- Mary and AJ (the clients)
Users begin by selecting text or audio input. This view shows a collapsed side menu.
While an audio recording is in progress, users can pause or end it. The chat bar and prompts are disabled while recording is in progress.
Once a recording is completed, users have the option to edit it, giving them the opportunity to add any additional details or resolve any dictation errors.
Once a transcript has been submitted, the chat bar and prompts are enabled. The user has Pippen create SOAP notes.
Additional administrative tasks—referral letter.
Additional administrative tasks—billing and diagnostic codes.
Impact
Launched in early 2024, Pippen is now in use across several medical practices in Ontario, significantly reducing administrative workload for many doctors and allowing them to focus on patient care. Early user feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and Pippen currently has multiple paying customers.
Within a few months of launching:
• The copy button was clicked over 1,000+ times, indicating that physicians were pasting Pippen's response into EMR's and other documents
• Audio encounters had been used more than 1500 times, indicating that 1400+ patients were served
• Over 3.5M tokens were generated (input and output)