BLUE BUTTON CHALLENGE
Role: UX Lead
In August 2010, President Obama announced the creation of a new “Blue Button”—a web-based feature through which patients may easily download their health information and share it with health care providers, caregivers, and others they trust. Since then, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have beta-tested their respective systems—with great success.
To make this information even more useful, the Markle and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations challenged developers to create applications that expand on the Blue Button’s promise by helping consumers use their data to stay healthy and manage their care. Eighteen companies competed for the $2,500 prize and the opportunity to have coffee with Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody and Cognitive Surplus. Submissions were judged on their usefulness, potential impact on health, ease of use, and accessibly from a variety of computing platforms.
I lead the UX on the Adobe team and our Blue Button Health Assistant won the challenge. This new “app” provides a comfortable and familiar user layout and eases the linkage of consumer information—including immunizations, allergies, medications, family health history, lab test results, and military service histories—among patients, providers, and caregivers using My HealtheVet, or claims data for those using the CMS Button.