Doctar - UX Research
Desk Research
Law №13,989, of 04/15/2020, authorizes the use of telemedicine during the crisis caused by the pandemic, in the modalities of teleorientation, telemonitoring and teleconsultation (exchange of opinions between physicians);
- 75% of private hospitals use telemedicine tools;
- More than 69% of hospital leaders said that technology has helped the institution out of the crisis caused by the pandemic;
- Even before the COVID-19 scenario was set up, a survey by the APM revealed that 90% of the 2,258 physicians interviewed believed in telemedicine as a way to improve care, 44% understood it as an immediate opportunity, and 24% believed that it could be an opportunity in the long term.
- The number of Healthtechs in Brazil grew from 248 in 2018 to 542 companies in 2020;
- In 2020, according to startup Distrito, Brazilian healthtechs received 106.1 million reais in contributions in 53 rounds of investment. The volume is 70% higher than the $62 million raised in 2019.
Benchmark
The next step was to investigate the competitors. This step was performed considering the overall success (presence, numbers of active users, etc.) as the main metric to evaluate the most prominent players in the market.
08 Healthtechs (Vibesaude, Dr. Consulta, Conexa, Mediquo, Doctoralia, Boa Consulta, DocWay and Einstein Conecta) were evaluated in order to identify the strategic opportunities for differentiation for the desired solution.
The criteria used for the evaluation can be verified in the table below, and were defined taking into account the functionalities offered, the ease of use, and the flow for the fulfillment of basic tasks such as scheduling appointments and accessing prescriptions and requests for examinations.
We then use the top 3 competitors to guide the definition of more adherent functionalities to meet the demands of our target audience. This selection was based on the fact that they allowed full or partial access to the functions of the app without “login first”, which we consider very important for the user experience, in addition to the ease to perform the most basic tasks. These were the fundamental purposes on which we set the goal of making the solution as simple as possible for users.
Comparative analysis was then restricted to the Dr.Consulta, Mediquo and Doctoralia applications.
Qualifying competitors and their features
We interviewed some professionals and patients, who use or have used at least one of the solutions in the table above, asking, “How do you understand the functionalities offered by the solution?”
Conclusions: All stated that the evaluated solutions offer much more than what is fundamentally necessary for their needs, particularly for professionals, creating a very large amount of resources, confusing and difficult-to-use and understand screens, which in practice are little explored by most professionals, who pay for what they do not use.
Quantitative Research
The quantitative research of the Doctar case study was elaborated to validate the hypotheses and doubts about the personas shown in the CSD Matrix below, seeking greater clarity about the main problems of these users.
Search breakdown
General objective: Understand and validate the hypotheses and assumptions. An Impact X Knowledge matrix was elaborated to prioritize which questions would be asked, and from it were elaborated the attitudinal questions, which can be checked below.
Search Header - Patients
How do you set your doctor’s appointments in the pandemic?
We´d like to learn how people have been related to their physicians and other healthcare professionals in the COVID-19 scenario.
Average response time: 1 and a half minutes.
- Do you feel comfortable leaving home to make an appointment? (to understand the degree of discomfort or fear of exposing yourself)
Yes.
No, but I will if it’s absolutely necessary. - As for the health, yours and those of close people, you would say that you are:
(to understand the concern for health)
Little worried.
Reasonably worried.
Very worried. - How do you find doctors when you need to?
(to understand how people look for doctors)
I google search.
I search telemedicine platforms.
I’m just going to the appointed doctors. - When making an appointment, are you afraid the doctor won’t be good? (to understand the concern with the quality of professionals)
Yes.
No. - After consulting, do you have difficulty organizing recipes and exam requests? (to understand the difficulty of organization)
Yes, I almost always lose or have difficulty finding these things.
No, I’m well organized.
A little. - On which platforms have you been served?
(to know if and on which platforms were serviced)
WhatsApp, GoogleMeet, Zoom or the like.
A specific telemedicine platform.
The two options above are true. - About the platforms you have experienced and your inclinations of use:(to understand if the form of care makes a difference)I
need to be serviced, the platform whatever.
I prefer the use of specific platform, due to the ease of concentrating my queries in the same place.
I don’t mind creating accounts and installing Apps from multiple platforms, since it meets my needs.
Search Header - Professionals
How do you mark queries and manage your activities in the pandemic?
We seek to understand how physicians and other health professionals have been related to their patients in the COVID-19 scenario.
Average response time: 1 and a half minutes.
- What’s your age group?
(to differentiate trends by age)
20 to 29 years.
30 to 39 years.
40 to 49 years.
50 to 59 years.
Over 60. - Do you use any healthcare-related platform to offer your services (Doctoralia, Dr. Consultation etc)?
(to know if and which platforms respondents have already used and their inclination to use)
Yes.
No.
No, WhatsApp or similar for me solve.
No, but I’m considering it. - Would you say that you have difficulty performing the general administration tasks of your activity?
(to see if you have administrative organization difficulties)
Yes.
No. - How do you currently advertise your services?
(to know how they advertise their services)
Use social networks.
I use social networks and paid ads.
I have a professional/company that takes care of this matter.
I do not disclose, I only meet the customers who come through the agreement. - How do you capture new patients?
(to learn how to pick up patients)
Through internet ad campaigns.
Only with indication of patients.
Since I answer only the covenant, I don’t care about it.
I’m looking into various forms of disclosure. - How do you control patient scheduling?
(to know the methods used and the inclination to use the solution)My
secretary takes care of everything in the physical agenda.
My secretary uses a free scheduling system.
My secretary uses a paid scheduling system.
I do it myself in a physical agenda.
I do it myself with free scheduling system.
I do it myself with paid scheduling system. - In relation to your professional activity, what is your greatest difficulty? (to know your greatest difficulty and check opportunity)
Do not have the desirable amount of calls per day.
Control administrative and financial routines. - How do you control the finances of your activity?
(to know how to capture do financial control)Control
by bank app.
I’ve got it all in a spreadsheet.
I use a specific management system.
My secretary knows.
I don’t control, I always mix personal and professional. - Are you in doubt about whether a new patient liked your care?
(to know if they know if the patients were satisfied)
Yes.
No. - Which statement best matches the impact of the pandemic on the number of consultations?
(to understand if there was an impact on the number of consultations)
There was no impact.
It was despicable.
It’s slowed down, but it’s reasonable.
I’ve had half the appointments before the pandemic.
The situation is very critical.
We obtained 89 responses, 66 from patients and 23 from health professionals. Below are the clippings of the most significant discoveries for the business, already aligned with the prioritization of solutions, which would be defined later in the process.
Qualitative research
This step aimed to consolidate the previous learnings, keeping the 4 questions with more significant quantitative answers, for deepening, and in order to better support the matrix of prioritization of solutions shown in the main case. We also left the interviewees free to give the suggestions they considered relevant.
With a total of 8 interviewees, 4 health professionals and 4 patients, here are the outcomes:
Patients
- Prefer to go to indicated doctors: opportunity for rating system;
- He is afraid to expose himself: opportunity for teleaendimento;
- Do not want to leave to consult and unless it is imperative: opportunity for teleaendimento;
- Afraid of professionals not being good: opportunity for rating system;
Professionals
With 87% not using specific system and capturing patients by indication we have great opportunity for telemedicine and rating system to “virtualize” indications. With more than 50% indicating difficulties in organization, and 95.3% without using financial management systems we have the opportunities to offer the organization in these aspects, with addition to the following conclusions:
- Although 39.1% of the surveyed pointed out the reduction in the number of consultations as none, and 17.4% as negligible, 52.2% of the professionals surveyed consider the number of patients insufficient, and stated that they would like to improve;
- All professionals would love to have a basic screening answered by the patients in the solution, for verification prior to consultations, with the purpose of gaining time and performing a more accurate check of the answers.
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