Stroke Connect for First-Responders
Project Overview
Stroke Connect is a clinical collaboration platform designed to connect pre-hospital stroke assessment with in-hospital decision-making. Integrated into mobile stroke units (ambulances equipped with CT machines) and hospital systems, it enables real-time data sharing, guided workflows, and remote expert collaboration to reduce time-to-treatment in acute stroke cases.
My work focused on interaction design across mobile and desktop platforms, ensuring usability, safety, and consistency within a regulated medical environment, while supporting users with very different professional backgrounds.
Role & Responsibilities
As an Interaction Designer, my primary responsibilities were:
Translating user research insights and regulatory constraints into interaction concepts
Designing and iterating end-to-end workflows for time-critical clinical tasks
Conducting heuristic evaluations to identify usability and safety risks
Leading mobile–desktop harmonization for a spoke–hub medical system
Collaborating with UX researchers, developers, clinical experts, and regulatory stakeholders
Testing, validating, and iterating concepts with real-world usage scenarios
Project Scope & Context
Stroke care is extremely time-sensitive: every minute without treatment increases brain damage and worsens outcomes. Stroke Connect addresses key challenges in the stroke care pathway:
Data silos between ambulance teams, radiologists, neurologists, and hospital systems.
Delayed clinical decisions due to lack of real-time insights in pre-hospital settings.
Variability in clinician workflows, especially during emergency transport.
Stroke Connect’s digital workflows aim to standardize and accelerate clinical decision-making during the most critical phase of care.
UX Role & Contributions
1. Design challenge
How might we create a user experience that enables clinicians to rapidly and confidently document, review, and communicate clinical assessments in time-critical, high-stress environments?
User groups:
Physicians
Paramedics
Context of use:
On-scene emergency settings
Ambulance environment
Remote consultation between hospital and field teams
2. User Research Insights
Conducted several field studies, qualitative and quantitative interviews
Key insights (hypothetical examples):
Clinicians need a guided workflow for NIH Stroke Scale assessments to reduce cognitive load under pressure.
High-quality imaging preview and annotations are essential
Users want seamless audio/video collaboration.
3. UX Strategy & Design Principles
Based on research, core design principles include:
Clarity over complexity: Simplify data entry and reduce unnecessary UI elements during time-critical tasks.
Contextual guidance: Provide task-based workflows with embedded help.
Real-time communication: Integrate chat, video, and alerts directly into the patient data view.
Responsiveness under constraints: Ensure performance even in low-bandwidth environments.
4. Interaction & Interface Design
UX deliverables:
Wireframes demonstrating guided NIHSS assessment
Prototype of real-time image and data sharing screen
Usability flows for mobile and desktop interactions
Accessibility considerations for field usage
Heuristic Evaluation
I conducted heuristic evaluations using 10 usability heuristics, resulting in:
Identification of interaction risks
Simplification of complex flows
Improved clarity around critical actions and states
Outcome & Impact
Delivered interaction concepts that support fast, safe clinical decision-making
Reduce time-to-treatment by ~30 minutes
Patient recovery outcomes improve by up to ~65% compared to standard care pathways.
Enhanced clinician confidence in remote stroke assessment
Reduced cognitive load during high-pressure clinical documentation
Improved collaboration between field teams and hospital specialists
