Rapid COVID-19 Response
CASE STUDY
CASE STUDY
The worldwide shortage of Personal protective equipment (PPE) early in the COVID-19 pandemic made it clear that reusing of them is inevitable as a protective measure. Teaming up with Emory University, a world leader in knowledge and treatment of infectious diseases, we developed a standardized protocol of proper reuse of PPE, aiding to keep the healthcare workers and patients safe from infection during their practice. We initially published printable PDF to swiftly deliver information, and eventually YouTube videos to provide more context, and ultimately an app to support multiple configuration of PPE.
Help Emory SCDP create educational materials that are up-to-date with the rapid change of safety policy around COVID-19. Reach as many hospital staff with their educational materials and flatten the curve for COVID-19 infection rate. Create medically accurate material, all without extensive content accuracy review from the HCPs who are already overbooked with hospitalized COVID patients.
Our team was recognized as a world leader at demonstrating how to most safely reuse PPE in healthcare, keeping up with the daily COVID policy change and consistently publishing up-to-date information during the worst time of the pandemic. The project reached frontline providers from the Philippines to Colorado, from Puerto Rico to military bases in the US keeping them safe while reusing PPE, saving millions from infections and deaths.
"Mao’s team is extremely organized, creative, and efficient. They worked with our team for over a year on high-impact projects during our rapid response to the pandemic. Mao is a capable leader and dedicated teammate. Her team brings energy and drive to every project they work on." - Michael Konomos, Emory University
Over a facilitated session, we surfaced the challenges SCDP as a healthcare organization faced. In this process, they prioritized implementing the safety operation based on the global and local policy that changed on a daily basis. Keeping up the content became the foundation of our work and strategy during the pandemic.
Due to the high-stake nature of HCP’s mission, content has to be clear, digestible, yet accurate. To cater to the needs of these users, we created unique user profiles to represent the state that they work in. This painted a clear picture of where a high possibility of infection lays and how we can prevent them through use of design.
Considering the difficulty of taking off PPE or getting out of the patient's room, accessibility to information became key.
Understanding the role that SCDP plays and who they are a champion for helped define the positioning of the educational material we create. While there were a lot of people who needed help during this unprecedented time, our mission was strictly to help the hospital personnel who worked at the Emory University Hospital System, and their family. By providing knowledge specific to hospital staff, we aimed to lower the infectious rate for Emory staff, thus providing a safe working environment for them and their family.
We were able to extract and define the key scope in which we have to work.
1. SMEs are already booked with an overflow of hospitalized COVID-19 patients
2. Global supply shortage of PPE, which are not designed to be safely reused
3. Racial division is becoming more and more radical (BLM, Asian Hate)
PPEs are not designed to be reused safely, and thinking through how to safely use them as much as possible is an unknown territory. It not only took highly-skilled logical thinking but also knowing the hospital operations and medical knowledge. Our mission was to take off the cognitive load of each doctors by offering a standardized PPE procedure without adding workload to obtain the information.
To offer accessibility to the information and to deliver it fast, we created a printable PDF of PPE instructions jamming as much information as possible in one page for each PPE combination. This allowed HCPs to easily print out and post the paper on the wall for anyone entering the patient rooms to acquire the information.
Following the success of the printable instructions, many across the globe requested a PPE combination they were using in their hospitals. We continued to create more variations of PPE instructions alongside other educational materials such as videos on N95, how masks work printable guide, ambulatory instructions, and decon printable guides.
By introducing motion, we filled the gap of explaining some of the instructions that are hard to explain in an illustrated form. Also by visualizing how the aerosol flow when using N95, we provided information that is easy to stick.
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To offer accessibility to the information and to deliver it fast, we created a printable PDF of PPE instructions jamming as much information as possible in one page for each situation. This allowed HCPs to easily print out and stick the paper on the wall for anyone entering the patient rooms to acquire the information.
While the project was initially for the Emory Hospital System, we distributed the materials publicly through the Emory website. The project reached worldwide, including those who are in rural and developing areas especially short in staff and PPE. The project helped reducing COVID infection and deaths, successfully flattening the curve during the worst time of the pandemic.
We would love to hear about your next outreach campaign.
By hearing your goal and referencing our past work, we will brainstorm how we can help with you.