Sahara

Project Sahara is an initiative designed to bridge the healthcare gap in rural India through a cutting-edge telehealth system. It leverages affordable, rugged technology with native language support to ensure broad accessibility and ease of use. By integrating advanced wireless biosensors and a user-friendly interface, Sahara connects rural patients with urban medical expertise, significantly improving access to quality healthcare. This project enhances medical service delivery and empowers communities by making health a reachable right for everyone.

Scope: Final Thesis @ Dayananda Sagar
Duration: 1.5 Years (3 months)
Team: Group of 4
Tools: Figma, FigJam, Blender
Role: UX Researcher & Designer, Frontend Developer
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Disclaimer: Awarded Best Project of Social Relevance among 200 groups.
Grants: Received $27,000 from the Gov. of Karnataka, India and $1500 from HeARTHealth Technologies.
‍Link to Literature Survey

CONTEXT

HEALTHCARE IS BROKEN. BEYOND REACH FOR SOME.

The report "Future of India: The Winning Leap" by Price Waterhouse Coopers reveals a stark disparity in medical accessibility between urban and rural areas in India. With only 0.67 doctors available per 1000 people nationwide, India falls significantly behind countries like the US, which boasts 2.3 doctors per 1000, and China and Brazil, which have 1.8 each. The situation is dire in rural India, where the ratio of doctors to patients plummets to a mere 0.30 per 1000, underscoring a four-fold disparity compared to the 1.33 in urban centres.

Several critical issues compound this alarming shortage of medical professionals in rural areas. The expansive rural landscape suffers from a severe lack of medical facilities, such as hospitals and clinics, severely limiting access to healthcare. Poor road infrastructure exacerbates this access issue, making travel to distant medical centres tricky and often impossible. Furthermore, low health literacy among rural populations complicates the situation further, as many need to recognize the importance of timely medical intervention. This combination of factors leads to delayed, or even absent, medical treatment, intensifying the healthcare crisis in rural India.

PROBLEM

Healthcare disparity should be non-existent.

We have pinpointed a critical need for a solution that bridges the gap between rural communities and urban medical expertise, enabling timely and quality healthcare access. Given the limitations in infrastructure, it is essential that our approach seamlessly integrates with the current systems in place. This strategy will ensure that rural populations can effectively draw upon the expertise of urban doctors, thereby enhancing the overall efficacy of healthcare delivery in these underserved areas.

UNDERSTAND THE DESIGN PROBLEM

How can we build a system that is both affordable and accessible, while maintaining sufficient quality to meet the healthcare needs of the underserved communities?

SOLUTION

A robust telehealth web platform to enhance healthcare accessibility and efficiency in underserved areas. This platform will leverage low-cost, durable technology to aggregate and collect patient data, featuring devices equipped with biosensors and wireless capabilities. These devices will be rugged and economical, so technicians can easily replace them if damaged. The platform will include an intuitive UI that is straightforward and user-friendly for patients and doctors, facilitating clear and simple interactions. This solution aims to bridge the gap in healthcare disparities by making quality medical care more accessible and manageable.

RESEARCH

We initiated our research by conducting interviews, collecting data to scrutinize different perspectives of doctors, nurses, technicians and patients.

USER INTERVIEW

The team visited 17 centers (Primary Health Centers and District Hospitals) in 4 states (Bihar, West Bengal, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh) without any prior appointments to record the ground conditions of these centers. The survey covered basic questions like no. of beds, availability of medical staff, and nearest hospital with better facilities; detailed questions like time taken for lab culture, average patients treated per day, availability of facilities for pregnant women, and other relevant questions. Additionally, we interviewed few patients during our visits.

Interviews with officials from these units revealed that approximately 89% of rural patients typically travel around 8 kilometers to reach basic medical facilities. Although the services at these centers in rural India are offered free of charge, about 80% of the doctors allocate only around 2 minutes per patient during consultations. Despite the substandard care provided by PHCs and CHCs, the survey noted that patients generally expressed satisfaction with their experiences.

For a comprehensive overview of our approach and analysis, please refer to our published literature survey.

COMP. ANALYSIS

The team conducted a thorough competitor audit of the 5 current telemedicine systems available in the market to identify their strengths and weaknesses in detail.

INSIGHTS

For rural India, a system that is affordable, accessible, and of adequate quality (AAA) is essential. Such an AAA system should include the following characteristics:-

• An economical solution for gathering and consolidating patient data.
• Wireless connectivity for biosensors to ensure ease of use.
• A durable design that is straightforward to maintain or replace at minimal cost.
• A UI that is uncomplicated and user-friendly, suitable for semi-skilled operators.
• Device independent of electrical power for its operation.
• Support for Native Language Support (NLS) to accommodate India’s diverse linguistic landscape and facilitate usage in local languages.

DITCHED THE PERSONA

‍We directly synthesized the research without any persona since the main focus was to make healthcare accessible to every rural being irrespective of their age, gender, or economic status.

WIREFRAMES

Considering our target audience, we wanted to create a look and feel that would resonate with rural folks, and creating a visual direction ensured that we were aligned and consistent across our designs. Sketching and annotating allowed for us to work through the logic of how our content should flow, and helped to lay the groundwork for the overall experience

MEDIUM-FI WIREFRAMES

Following a successful round of usability testing with our paper prototype, we advanced to creating medium-high fidelity wireframes and prototypes in Figma.

DEVELOPMENT

The Figma prototype received positive feedback from both patients and doctors at Primary Health Centers, prompting us to move forward with its development. To ensure data security, the application was integrated with AWS, and sensor data were transmitted to the cloud using AWS IoT Core.

We incorporated Zoom into the system, a tool that gained widespread popularity during the project's development amidst the 2021 pandemic—a period that still haunts me.

NEGLECTED USER FEEDBACK

Once the initial version of our app was launched, it became more straightforward to implement modifications directly on our high-fidelity prototypes. Inspired by my understanding of the HCD process, I decided to establish a design system to streamline future developments.

REFLECTION

Reflecting on this project, it's clear that developing a telehealth system tailored for rural India presented a unique set of challenges. One of the most significant hardships was ensuring the system's accessibility and usability across diverse and often remote user bases, which required innovative approaches to design and functionality. Balancing affordability and quality, particularly in a setting plagued by infrastructure limitations, pushed our team to think creatively about resource allocation and technological solutions. The implementation phase entails integrating complex systems like AWS IoT Core, which demands meticulous attention to detail and rigorous testing to ensure data security and reliability.

This project offers many learning opportunities, especially in Human-Centered Design and system integration. Delving into the HCD process taught me the importance of empathy in design, especially when creating solutions for users with starkly different lifestyles and needs from my own. This project also enhanced my technical skills, particularly in working with advanced cloud solutions and understanding health tech's data security nuances.

KEY TAKEAWAY

A key takeaway from this project was the profound impact of the Human-Centered Design (HCD) process on creating meaningful social change. By prioritizing the specific needs and contexts of rural communities in India, we were able to develop a telehealth system that not only addresses the stark disparities in healthcare access but also significantly enhances the quality of life for these populations. This approach reinforced the value of empathy and inclusivity in design, demonstrating how deeply understanding user experiences can lead to innovations that make a real difference in society.