Opportunity
Our client, an international manufacturer and supplier of medical equipment, wanted to understand the end-to-end journey of orthopedic surgery patients in order to learn how to better support them in their preparation and recovery.
The client was also looking to understand what solutions might help fill gaps in the journey or augment existing support pathways.
Role
Solutions Lead
Lead Researcher
Team Members
1 Support Researcher
1 Project Manager
Methods
Survey
In-depth interviews
Thinking styles mapping
Primary Objectives
- Understand the physical, mental, and emotional journey of patients as they contemplate, undertake, and recover from orthopedic surgery
- Understand how patient needs map to current assumptions about the journey and gaps
- Identify new gaps in care and pain points along the full spectrum of the surgery and recovery journey
- Gather patient reactions to proposed case study solutions
- Explore new potential solutions to aid patients in the orthopedic surgery journey
Deliverables
- Research report, including validated, adjusted, and new assumptions
- Proposed solutions
- Thinking styles
Approach
- Recruit a mix of pre- and post-op orthopedic surgery patients who planned or had unexpected surgery.
- Run a survey to identify needs and emotions pre- and post-op, verify some assumptions about key patient concerns and considerations, and start to build an understanding of the emotional journey through surgery.
- Conducted in-depth interviews with selected survey participants to dive deeper into their surgery journeys to understand the emotional experience and drivers of key decisions during the process, as well as gather reactions to solution case studies.
Client Impact
- Validation and refinement to several assumptions about the patient experience before, during, and after surgery.
- Patient insights to help direct prioritization and development of new solutions to fill gaps and provide relief to patients during their orthopedic surgery journey.
- Nascent thinking styles to help define the ways in which patients approach and react to orthopedic surgery and guide future research efforts.
- Actionable next steps for deeper research dives into the patient experience.
