Elevance Health · Maya Project
Research plan
Research goals, methods, participant plan, and phased execution for validating the Maya remote post-operative care experience with partner hospitals.
Goals
Discover
- Typical clinician workflows
- How hospitals assist patients who cannot reach their doctor
- Touchpoints between clinicians, administrators, and patients
- Communication barriers that must be overcome
- Demographic makeup of patients, including common devices and technical constraints
Validate
- Typical reasons for patient readmissions
- Patient and clinician personas
- User journey maps and task flows
- Efficacy of Maya UI and requirements
Deliver
- Validated high-fidelity interfaces for care teams and the patient pilot experience
- Refined personas and journey maps for each persona
- Feature adjustments needed for pilot success
Success metrics
- Decrease in hospital readmissions of monitored post-op pediatric patients
- Lowered cost of care per monitored patient
- Increase in reported guardian and patient satisfaction
Methodology
- Virtual / field observation at partner hospitals to identify task flows, clinical interactions, and workflow inefficiencies
- Clinician and patient interviews (in person or remote) to fill gaps after observation
- Behavioral and attitudinal surveys for objective demographic and behavioral data
- Usability testing to validate product solutions
- Diary study during the pilot for experiences patients may forget or hesitate to share in interviews
- Retrospective interviews after the pilot ends
- Application analytics (de-identified) to understand production usage
Tools
- UserZoom for remote interviews and note-taking
- Tablet for in-person note-taking
- Recording device for in-person interviews
- FullStory or equivalent for analytics
- Dscout or equivalent for diary study
- Qualtrics or equivalent for surveys
Research participants
- Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (clinicians, patients, administrators as applicable)
- Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago (clinicians, patients, administrators as applicable)
Phased plan
Phase 1 — Understand & discovery
- Virtual observations (2–4 hours per partner hospital; synthesis 4–8 days)
- One-on-one interviews with 6–10 clinicians, patients, and administrative staff
- 1–2 short surveys to patients and clinicians
- Persona refinement from collected data
- Secondary research (demographic, competitive, and analogous analysis)
Phase 2 — Define & test
- Visual design: user flows, high-fidelity mockups, clickable prototypes (3–4 weeks initial; ongoing refinement post-launch)
- Initial usability testing (moderated and/or unmoderated) before and during development
Phase 3 — Release pilot, test & monitor
- Weekly group interviews with participating clinicians during the pilot
- Diary study with consenting patients for the duration of care
- Key interaction metrics tracked with Elevance data partners
- Ongoing usability testing when new, unvalidated decisions ship
Phase 4 — Retrospective
- Post-care retrospective interviews with clinicians, administrators, and patients, including satisfaction and NPS-style measures
Hour estimates and burn-rate scenarios for this plan are documented in the project scope and estimates artifact. Clinician discussion guides are in the clinician interview guide.