Telehealth Patient Monitor Interface
This project addresses the challenges of patient monitoring in telehealth environment, where a single telehealth nurse remotely oversees multiple patients.
We focused on a telehealth nurse’s struggle where they cannot clearly know what is happening around the bedside and thereby cannot respond in time. We propose simple features with unique interface that address these issues and can be easily integrated into the existing monitor.
Team
Simon Ljungblahd
Natálie Švehlová
Eonbi Hong
Timeline and place
5 weeks, 2024
Umeå Institute of Design
Collaboration partner
Philips Healthcare
Project scope
Two most common events in hospitals.
In this project, we focused on two events that happen all the time.
We aimed to address these two specific use cases with two simple features. But together, they show the remote nurse what the monitor alone cannot: what is actually happening at the bedside.
1Saturation probe falling off a patient
Problem
The saturation probe, the small sensor that reads a patient's blood oxygen, slips off often. Each time it does, a technical alarm goes off. The alarm itself isn't the danger. The danger is the gap: while saturation isn't being measured, something serious could happen unnoticed. So when the alarm sounds, the remote nurse has questions. Is anyone at the bedside? Is someone on their way? Do I need to call the ward?
Solution
Our approach to address this problem quickly and effectively is to add a small visual indicator called a 'Mini Map,' which allows nurses to glance at the bedside and see if there're any nurses near by the patient. Then we made the Mini map act as a button that opens a new window called 'Focus View.' Focus view contains a video feed showing two important pieces of information: the location and body position of the nurses. The telehealth nurse can switch between the two views using mouse scrolling.
1Mini map
2Focus view
How it works
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When the technical alarm goes off, the telehealth nurse first checks the Mini Map to see whether anyone is near the patient. Since there's currently no one by the bedside, they can click the Mini Map to open Focus View. They then zoom out until they see the nearest bedside nurse in the ward. If no one is coming, the telehealth nurse can quickly decide to inform the ward. In this case, the telehealth nurse can see that a bedside nurse is approaching the patient, so they zoom in again and check the bedside nurse's body position to make sure that they have fixed the probe.
2Unusual dips found in ABP graph
Problem
An unusual dip in the ABP graph often means something ordinary: a bedside nurse taking a blood sample. But from a distance, the graph only shows that something happened, not what. To know, the nurse has to go back to that exact moment.
Solution
To address this problem, we let them see the moment itself. In Focus View, the parameter graph sits directly below the video feed. Click any point on the graph, and the footage jumps to the bedside at that exact time.
How it works
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When the telehealth nurse notices an unusual dip on the ABP graph, they open Focus View to review the video footage. Since the ABP parameter (red) needs to be examined, the parameter is selected to display its graph below the video feed. A live view appears first, and once a specific time frame is selected, the video footage at that exact moment is shown. In this case, it becomes clear that a bedside nurse is taking a blood sample from the patient.
Design system
Project design system for consistency
While we were working on the prototype, we made a simple design system to keep consistency and to make the prototype easily understandable.
Story around the process
More to tell about what we’ve tried, failed and evaluated
There's much more behind why it looks this way: the attempts, the failures, and the evaluations that shaped each decision. If you're curious, I'd love to tell you more. Please reach out.
Behind the scene
Field trip to hospital and lots of group work
Reflection
Prototype, test and let people see it
This project let me step into the world of healthcare design. Huge thanks to Leon Andersen and the medical staff at NUS for sharing their knowledge and experience.
Most importantly, I want to give my deepest appreciation and respect to my great team, Simon and Natálie for amazing work and that they made five intense weeks a joy.
From this project, I learned to get out of my head and build: quickly, so we could test and evaluate. I practiced presenting ideas clearly enough that people could see the benefits for themselves. I believe I came out of these five weeks a better designer, in how I reason, prototype, test, and evaluate.
©eonbi 2026
