Challenge
Give physicians increased vision into the patient, align their natual senses (e.g. hand-eye coordination), and reduce the learning curve to assemble 2D image slices in their minds as 3D structures. Ultrasound-based, needle-guided procedures are an ideal use-case for the strengths of augmented reality technologies.

Roles
User Researcher, Information Architect, Interaction Designer, Human Factors Engineer

Process
We started with Microsoft's Mixed Reality Toolkit (MRTK) and started customizing interactions and UI based on feedback for formative usability studies sampling dozens of clinical participants.

Tools
HoloLens, MRTK, Figma, Unity, Houdini

Outcome
Currently available through MediView as a Class I medical device. Class II ETA 2023.

Challenge
Keep it simple! Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is already foreign enough to Radiologists and Cardiologists. Add ontop of that this previously unheard of ability for the clinician to model and predict flow in a patient's coronary arteries. Complexity needed to be designed out to give users an intuitive tool that fits their mental model of narrowings in the arteries and one they can pickup and use without studying a manual.

Roles
User Researcher, Information Architect, Lead Designer. Additional design by Alven Wang.

Process
Countless hours of interviews and contextual inquiry. Design, prototype, test, repeat. Over and over again until we knew we had designed out major risks both to patient safety and to the business.

Tools
Sketch, InVision, Lottie, AfterEffects, Houdini, Unity

Outcome
Because of the resources put into user research, the HeartFlow Planner is a great example of a product where definition and iteration happend in the lo-fi design phase (think, less expensive) instead of the hi-fi implementation phase (think, lots of engineers and expensive). FDA approved August 2019!

Challenge
User research revealed that interventional cardiologists in a sterile cath lab wish to touch as little as possible and must resort to barking commands to staff to operate equiptment. In addition, clinicians trust the DICOM imagery as the "real" images and benefit from the HeartFlow model being co-registered with plaque and calcium information in the DICOM images.

Roles
User Researcher, Principal Designer, Prototyper

Process
Contextual inquiry revealed workflow gaps and therefore design opportunities, prototyping and formative usability evaluations

Tools
Houdini, Unity, C#, LEAP Motion, Sketch

Outcome
These prototypes "hit the cutting room floor". The product needed to focus in on a much narrower minimal viable product (MVP), therefore these concepts were shelved for another day.