The Project
Reframing My Health Record: Transforming Clinical Data into Accessible Health Information
My Health Record is a critical national digital health initiative managed by the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA). While the existing browser-based platform housed valuable health information, research showed citizens struggled with its clinical terminology and complex navigation.
In early 2022, I led the experience design for ADHA’s strategic initiative to increase engagement and accessibility through a mobile app. My challenge: design a solution that would transform formal medical documentation into a user-centered mobile experience that drives both citizen engagement and supports Australia’s broader digital health strategy—all while working within existing technical infrastructure.
This strategic design approach resulted in an app that not only won a 2023 Good Design Award but also achieved [specific outcomes] and established a foundation for ADHA’s long-term mobile health ecosystem.
Strategic approach
To ensure the app delivered maximum value within technical constraints, I developed a strategic framework balancing three key factors:
- Consumer Value: Making health information accessible and understandable to consumers / patients through considered information architecture and plain language
- Business Impact: Supporting ADHA’s mission to increase digital health adoption while maintaining clinical integrity and standards of privacy and security
- Technical Feasibility: Designing within existing API limitations while creating a foundation for future expansion
This framework guided all design decisions, from feature prioritization to interaction patterns.
The process
- Research to create a clear blueprint representing the current state
- Define a future state through a paper proof of concept, co-designed and tested with a range of stakeholders
- Blueprint the process to identify requirements and support system architectures.
- Propose next steps, including any structural needs, for a practical and technical proof of concept
The Diagnostic Imaging industry is very mature, has a significant peak body and expressed their needs in papers, studies, presentations and submissions. Desktop research and interviews with key players alongside site visits and interviews at Diagnostic Imaging clinics. Research included any exploration of individual bespoke systems the imaging organisations have deployed or in planning.
Research and discovery
Through a co-design and evidence led approach design what a future diagnostic imaging electronic ordering and referral solution and experience could look like.
I formulated a clear, current state blueprint, including, in-progress activities that would support a future-state foundation of an end-to-end digital experience. I defined several problem and I created a collection of design principles for the new service. Through research, design, validation and outputs, I carried the project to a viable proof of concept ready to receive funding.
Define and design
I identified the impact of a digital solution on customers and what government could do to support industry to delivering this solution
I co-designed a Proof of Concept (PoC) with clinicians, consumers and industry stakeholders. All designs included an understanding of requirements and consumer values and benefits. The concept was supported with several scenarios, using simple personas to demonstrate how the concept benefits consumers with assorted health needs from diagnostic imaging.
Test and validate
I proposed and validated a digital journey and experience map to test with front line clinical workers, requesting clinicians, imaging providers and consumers.
The testing uncovered many findings groups into several themes that were all taken back into the proposed proof of concept. The concept had different detail fidelities to communicate the structure and benefit.
Goals and outcomes
The goal was a proof of concept that would fund a practical prototype for further testing and validation in later stages. Three main groups of stakeholders were to be addressed: Practitioners requesting imaging for their patients, the patients as Consumers of an imaging service, the imaging Providers, offering their services to consumers and their practitioners.
Defining the design principles, I set the foundations of any designs going forward. From collaboration with Architects, I set a framework the underlying technology needed to satisfy, and clarified a minimal data set to include and why they are of value to all. I created several versions of the proof of concept to communicate the structure to different stakeholders according to their business, strategic or delivery needs.
from the tested Proof of concept and the inputs. from all stakeholders, the project received funding and approval from the ministry to build a practical proof of concept to validate the findings and test the hypotheses stipulated.
