The USC Iovine and Young Academy’s Designing Digital Experiences (ACAD 280) course explores the boundaries and possibilities of computational information design, from data visualization to physical computing. How do people communicate with machines and how can these interactions be improved for the greater good? Students analyze this very question through programming and product development, and this semester they tackled a real-life tech challenge that has the power to directly affect the healthcare industry. 

Collaborating with the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), students were faced with a problem worth solving: addressing the user experience healthcare providers encounter when dealing with patient wearable health devices. The prompt worked within the context of an upcoming EIT study planning to analyze how patient weight loss journeys through Ozempic (Semaglutide) affect sleep quality and overnight heart rate viability. 

Professor Aaron Siegel explains: “Students have been working with data derived from the Oura ring device and have been developing interactive interfaces to visualize and explore patient data using JavaScript. The students needed to first assess the needs of healthcare providers, then propose visual designs that would help address those needs, and then work together to write custom software to automatically produce the information design results.”

On April 23, the class presented their end products to EIT team members, including Dr. Sharon Orrange, MD, MHS, Director, Wellness and Preventative Care; Dr. Jerry Lee, PhD, Chief Science and Innovation Officer; Jacqueline Chu, MPAP, PA-C, Physician Assistant; and Darren Kessner, PhD, Software Engineer. The results included three different prototypes for interfaces. As Siegel notes, healthcare providers can use these products to “assess and analyze the bodily activity of patients over time.”

Dr. Orrange was encouraged not only by student ingenuity, but by the compassion infused in approaching the project from inception to outcome. 

“Witnessing these students, from January to April, develop a product that so beautifully addressed the unmet needs of both patients and providers was deeply moving. The insight and empathy they brought to the table were truly inspiring, and it made me realize how fortunate our patients are to have such brilliant minds advocating for them,” she shared. 

Dr. Malcolm Jones, IYA’s post-doctoral director of health innovation, highlighted the on-the-spot implementation and practical applications of the students' efforts.

What made this project so special? He adds, "It was awesome to see these student creatives realize how essential their skillsets are to advancing medicine in real time!"

Collaborating with the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), students were faced with a problem worth solving: addressing the user experience healthcare providers encounter when dealing with patient wearable health devices.

Students Work with Ellison Institute of Technology to Address Healthcare Provider User Experiences

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