Through digitalisation, patients are increasingly drawn to online platforms, while healthcare professionals are having to adapt their workflows to new, often complex systems. This remains a challenge for users that are less digitally literate.
Numbers don't lie.
Research from the RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment) underscores this. The use of patient portals by general practitioners has increased from 42% in 2019 to 79% in 2021. They observed that healthcare applications are increasing, while patient adoption is lagging behind. This continued to be the case in subsequent years; supply is increasing faster than patient adoption.
From GP to hospital
This trend was confirmed in practice during a workshop on digital triage for general practices. Doctors unanimously acknowledged that both patients and staff often struggle with using online portals.
Ageing of digital skills
Older adults in particular (the largest group requiring care due to the aging population) prefer to manage their care matters in person rather than digitally. Rapid societal change makes it difficult for them to keep up, which can make even everyday tasks complicated.
Shortage of time and hands
Besides the challenges patients experience with online portals, training staff in these new systems is also a time-consuming process, especially now that staff shortages are already a problem. Entering patient data, an essential yet invisible task, rarely receives additional time. This means staff must perform this important work in addition to their regular duties, further increasing the workload.
Carmel Papa
UX Research & Design"Effective digital care requires clear explanations and coordination with target groups, without disrupting existing processes."
To ensure your digital product is actively used, education plays a key role. In a successful digital product, education is an integral part of the design process from the very beginning. Every point of contact with users (whether by phone, website, appointment, or letter) offers an opportunity to educate them about your system.
Make sure you understand who your users are. Get to know your target audience: their goals, frustrations, context, and previous experiences with digital tools. This goes beyond personas: motivation is just as important as demographic information. These insights form the foundation for making decisions that add value.
Actively involve your target audience in the design process. Involve users in the design process through workshops and testing. Collaborate on designing onboarding and workflows that meet their expectations. Co-creation ensures you're not just creating something technically feasible, but something they'll actually want to use.
Design journeys, not individual features. Translate insights into user journeys that cover the entire experience—from first interaction to daily use. Prioritize complete scenarios instead of a collection of features. This prevents you from ending up with a product that feels like disjointed pieces without coherence.
Conclusion
The digital transformation in healthcare requires more than just developing new tools; its success depends on their acceptance and integration into daily use. And that requires four crucial steps: know your users, co-create, design based on their experiences, and keep iterating. This is the future of digital care: designed with care, for care.
Let's get started!
