Medtronic MRI

The process to get an MRI with an implanted cardiac device is complex and creates a service burden for Medtronic field service. As sales continue to increase, Medtronic must rely on stakeholders outside of Medtronic to take on more responsibility.

This project was focused on uncovering the pain points, needs, and motivators of stakeholders, to impact adoption of a new product technology and associated workflows. Additionally, we sought to discover process refinements that can be made to relieve burden today, and reduce the amount of time field service spends on MRI scans.

Approach: For this engagement, I lead research as part of a two person design team, along with deep partnership from the Medtronic Customer Experience Team. Over a six week period, we conducted on-site qualitative interviews with healthcare professionals, synthesized insights and co-designed their future MRI experience and workflows to reduce Medtronic service burden and increase adoption.

Outcome: Our team delivered strategic insight into how MRIs for device patients are handled today, pain points, opportunities, best practices and change management recommendations. We also delivered two future solutions including workflow changes that could be rolled out immediately, as well as concepts that included a physical device. These findings were integrated into future Medtronic MRI protocols and rolled out nationwide.

Research

Through qualitative user research, we sought to gain an in-depth understanding of the MRI process for conditional devices from the perspective of radiologists and MR techs, cardiologists/EPs and their nurses, and Medtronic clinical specialists. We visited 9 facilities in 2 geographies in the U.S., and interviewed 32 people total involved in the MRI process.

We took an ethnographic approach, interviewing each role individually in their hospital setting. Sessions were 1-2 hours in duration, and included an interview and activities such as card sorting, journey mapping, and co-creating desired solutions to challenges identified in the MR workflow, from the perspective of each role.

Research Deliverables:

Current state journey map with pain points & opportunities
Card sort ranking of psychological needs

Design & Delivery

After our research and co-design sessions, we translated the findings into insights and strategic recommendations to improve workflow, and support adoption of MRI responsibilities for device patients. These findings were presented to cross-functional stakeholders across Medtronic and were used to drive short and longterm decisions related to MRI support. Here is a bit of what we learned & delivered.

Workflow Recommendations