HeyDoc

Role

UX Designer

Timeline

4-6 weeks

Tools Used

Figma

Affinity Designer

Able

The Problem

Approximately 6.4 million Canadians do not have a family doctor. Canada is facing a nationwide shortage of accessible medical care that is primarily centred around access to family healthcare.

What is HeyDoc?

HeyDoc is a mobile app that allows patients to see which doctors in their area are accepting new patients and to keep track of their place on any healthcare waitlists that they are on. HeyDoc also includes local hospitals and local walk-ins. HeyDoc aims to improve accessibility to Canadian healthcare by increasing transparency and accessibility to healthcare practitioners.

Hypothesis

My hypothesis is that an app that allows patients to see which healthcare practitioners are accepting new patients would increase accessibility to healthcare in Canada.

The Competitors

  1. Rocket Doctor

  2. Vivacare: Telehealth

  3. Maple

    • All of the companies/services offer same-day video appointments in Canada.

    • The companies are exclusive to certain provinces due to variations in healthcare coverage across Canada.

    • Some companies are exclusive to mobile while others are exclusive to desktop.

    • Some of the services charge patients while others are completely free. Pricing can also vary within the same service. For example, Rocket Doctor s free in Alberta and BC but it is billable in Ontario due to comparatively poor healthcare coverage in Ontario.

    • All of the services are constrained in some way by healthcare coverage across the country.

    • The most major variation between services appears to be pricing.

    • The variation in healthcare coverage must be considered when deciding on the scope of the app.

User Interviews

I conducted interviews with four participants in January 2024 over Zoom and in person. All participants were located in Ontario and were in their mid to late twenties.

    • We want to evaluate what barriers patients face when attempting to access healthcare in Canada.

    • We want to evaluate the needs of Canadian patients and identify if the hypothesis is valid.

    • 3 out of 5 of the participants do not have a family doctor.

    • 3 out of 5 of the participants said that not having a family doctor makes it difficult for them to access healthcare in Canada.

    • 5 out of 5 of the participants said shorter wait times for appointments would make it easier for them to access healthcare.

    • 4 out of 5 of the participants said wait times exceeded 10 hours at ERs and walk-ins.

    • 2 out of 5 of the participants mentioned the restrictive hours of most clinics as a barrier to healthcare access.

    • 4 out of 5 of participants said it was difficult for them to see a physician when they needed to.

Personas

  • Deborah

    STUDENT COORDINATOR- 29 YEARS OLD

    Deborah is a 29-year-old Student Coordinator at the University of Toronto, Scarborough campus. She loves going to the movies with her friends and volunteering in her local community. Deborah also has moderate to severe asthma. She had a family doctor who would prescribe her the puffer she needed but that doctor retired, and she is currently on multiple wait lists to get a new family doctor. In the mean time, Deborah has been forced to use walk-ins to get her prescription. This is very inconvenient for her because the wait times often go up to 6 hours or more, which means she has to take the whole day off of work.

  • Ravi

    IT SPECIALIST - 32 YEARS OLD

    Ravi is a 32-year-old IT specialist living in Brampton. Ravi immigrated from India to Canada 3 years ago and has exclusively been seen at ERs and walk-ins. He is on several waiting lists to get a family doctor but he hasn’t been able to become a permanent patient in over 3 years. In addition, Ravi works from 8am to 7pm 5 days a week. It is very difficult for him to go to walk-ins and ERs even when he needs to because when he does go after work, they’re often overloaded with other patients who also just got off of work.

Task Flows

Lo-fi

Hi-fi

The Solution

Our solution was to design an app that connects available family physicians to patients and allows patients to track their place on physician waitlists. The app also allows patients to see what local doctors, hospitals, and walk-ins are in their area, with wait times. This solution was validated by our usability test, where all participants said that the workflows were easy and intuitive to perform.