Annie for Clinicians
A clinical messaging and protocol management tool used by VA care teams across the country.
Overview
Annie for Clinicians is designed to streamline patient management and communication for healthcare providers. The platform offers functionalities such as viewing patient rosters, setting up teams, configuring care protocols, reviewing patient messages, and generating insightful reports. By consolidating these tasks in one place, Annie aims to boost efficiency and improve patient outcomes.
Team & Stakeholders:
Clinicians/Healthcare Providers (primary users)
Project Manager/Product Owner (for requirements and scope)
Developers/Engineers (to implement design)
Quality Assurance (for testing and feedback)
My Role
Product/UX Designer: Led the end to-end design process, from initial research and wireframing to high-fidelity prototypes and handoff.
The Challenge
1. Identifying the Problem
Clinicians are often inundated with multiple, disjointed tools for managing patient data, messaging, and care protocols. This fragmentation leads to confusion, lost time, and potential oversight in patient care. Annie for Clinicians was envisioned to centralize these functionalities into a single, user-friendly platform.
Key Pain Points Identified:
Fragmented Systems – Providers had to toggle between different apps and screens.
Inefficient Workflows – Key information (patient status, protocol compliance) was not easily accessible in one view.
Limited Collaboration – Team-based patient management was challenging without clear, shared dashboards.
Lack of Customization – Clinicians needed the flexibility to set their own preferences, protocols, and team structures.
“Over 70% of clinicians report feeling overwhelmed by the number of systems they log into daily.”
“Most digital tools lack team-based workflows, making collaboration harder for VA providers.”
The Process
2. Research & Discovery
User Interviews & Surveys:
Spoke with clinicians (doctors, nurses, medical assistants) to understand daily workflows.
Collected feedback on existing tools, frustrations, and “wish-list” features.
Competitive Analysis:
Looked at other healthcare management tools to identify best practices and usability patterns.
Insights:
Clinicians wanted a straightforward interface that prioritized quick patient lookups and real-time updates.
Messaging history and protocol configurations needed to be at-a-glance, reducing the number of clicks.
A “Teams” concept was crucial for collaborative care, especially in multi-disciplinary clinics.
3. Designing the Solution
Based on research insights and user feedback, I focused on restructuring the interface into clearly defined, modular sections that reflect clinicians’ daily workflows. Each section was carefully crafted to reduce cognitive load, improve task efficiency, and enhance patient care collaboration.
Patient Search & Protocol
Finding and assigning a patient is now faster and more intuitive.
A robust search allows clinicians to locate a Veteran by name, ID, or team. Once selected, they can immediately assign or update care protocols using a simplified editor that includes:
Start/stop dates
Message frequency
Custom thresholds
We also added smart defaults to reduce decision fatigue while still allowing for deep customization when needed.
Message History & Reports
Clinicians needed clarity and context fast.
I designed a contextual patient profile that includes:
All historical messages (sent + received)
Alerts and responses from Veterans
Graphical biometric reports (BP, weight, and temperature)
These data points now live in a tabbed view for easy toggling between timelines and trends.
My Patients & Teams Dashboard
A unified dashboard to manage assignments.
We introduced a simplified table layout, inline actions, and clear participation statuses to give clinicians instant clarity.
Subscription Library
We created a centralized place to manage protocol templates both national and facility specific.
Clinicians can now browse, preview, and assign existing protocols like “Diabetes Management” or “Weight Tracking” without starting from scratch.
Bonus: Templates are collapsible, searchable, and grouped by category for fast retrieval.
Admin & Settings
To support clinical admins, we added lightweight tools to:
Create care teams
Manage user access and permissions
Customize clinician preferences (like contact info and team visibility)
This reduces dependence on IT and puts more control in the hands of the actual users.
“This update saves me so much time. I used to get lost trying to find protocol info—now it’s just right there.”
Outcomes & Impact
While quantitative metrics are still being tracked post-launch, early feedback shows:
Reduced assignment time (from 5+ min to under 2)
Fewer support requests related to patient lookup and protocol setup
High clinician satisfaction, especially around the “Message History” tab
Reflection
Designing for the VA means balancing usability with compliance, and simplicity with flexibility. Annie for Clinicians taught me how to:
Design modularly for evolving needs
Communicate with multi role stakeholders (clinicians, engineers, QA)
Prioritize accessibility and clarity in data heavy systems
It’s incredibly rewarding to know this tool directly impacts how care teams support our Veterans day in and day out.
