CAR-T Outpatient Therapy
Project Overview
As a part of an independent study course, my team and I found an opportunity to partner with Northwestern Memorial Hospital and help develop their outpatient care program for the CAR-T process. Northwestern Memorial currently only offers treatment in an inpatient setting, meaning patients stay in the hospital for approximately a week after receiving treatment.
CAR-T cell therapy processSkills developed
Problem identification
User Research
Insight generation
Lo-Fi Prototyping
Presentation development
User Research
We were able to speak with 3 caregivers about their experience. This helped us gain valuable insights into the responsibilities they had, the process of preparing for treatment, and the emotional toll these situations can take on the patients and their family members.
Our research came to find that In most cases the caretaker is an older adult who is often a close family member of the patient. In most cases, this is their spouse, while it sometimes can be an adult child. These caregivers are not typically familiar with administering medical care, placing a great deal of responsibility on these individuals.
Main Insights
“The caretaker, in some sense, is now acting as the RN. It’s a huge responsibility to watch over someone else’s life and treatment.”
Increased responsibility
“Right now, the caretaker sometimes only comes for the treatment - it is important to assess their knowledge before they care for the patient in outpatient”
Need for assessment
How might we educate caregivers such that they feel more confident and prepared to care for their CAR-T cell therapy patient in an outpatient setting?
“Everyone learns differently. We have to be prepared to cater to all learners. Not everyone can listen to our instructions once and go home ready to act."
Learning styles
In response to these insights, background research, and interviews with staff and caregivers, we decided to focus on caregiver/patient education and developed three solutions for the Northwestern CAR T program to use when shifting to an outpatient therapy.
Solution
Outpatient Tracking
User interviews showed that many caregivers track their loved ones vitals and general wellbeing in order to keep a log for future doctor visits. We created a standardized journal which helps caregivers monitor their patients’ symptoms, taking things day by day, allowing them to feel confident in their loved ones medical history.
Caregiver & Patient Checklist
The checklist was created after finding there was a need to ensure that caregivers and patients feel equipped to handle all that comes with CAR-T therapy when given in an outpatient setting. Since there was not a current check to ensure how well these caregivers and patients understand what is being asked of them, we developed a checklist that runs through the important topics covered in educational sessions.
Outpatient Care Videos
We heard from caregivers and hospital team members alike that videos are a great option to supplement information given to patients. As Northwestern Memorial moves from inpatient to outpatient, we recognized this need for caregivers to have a variety of resources at their fingertips, as their role in the patients recovery has become crucial in monitoring their safety and wellbeing.
Background Work
Service blueprint development used to identify impactful moments during the CAR-T outpatient process
Refinement of the Northwestern staff’s operations workflow for transitioning to outpatient treatment and inclusion of educational aspects
Storyboard prototype used for testing with a second round of caregivers in order to gain feedback on solution direction