Pharmaceutical Study Tracking System

About the project

I partnered with a leading pharmaceutical organization to design a digital platform that supports the management of clinical studies. The system was built to simplify complex processes while ensuring compliance and transparency across research teams.

The platform enabled users to:

• Monitor and document different types of risks, issues, actions or even decisions made throughout the study lifecycle.

• Organize and follow up on study meetings, ensuring accountability.

• Send automated notifications for reviews, approvals, or escalations when required.

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The goal was to provide healthcare professionals with a clear, efficient way to monitor progress, ensure compliance, and improve collaboration across teams.

Design Progress

• Used Design Thinking methodology to create this design.​

Phase 1: Empathized

We conducted focus groups and one-on-one interviews to gain a deeper understanding of user needs, pain points, and expectations.

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• Who are they? Doctors, scientists, clinical leads, and healthcare professionals overseeing clinical studies

• What do they need? A reliable system to track risks, issues, protocol deviations, and actions; receive timely notifications; comment and collaborate with peers; escalate or request reviews when necessary.

• What do they expect? A clear, intuitive way to monitor different aspects of one or multiple studies without feeling overwhelmed.

• What are their pain points? Overload of information without meaningful filters. Inability to draft reports or update issue types easily. Limited flexibility in categorizing or escalating cases. Poor user experience that slowed down decision-making.

These insights allowed us to make informed design decisions and create solutions that truly addressed their challenges.

Phase 2: Define

Analyze Current Flow

Given the complexity of the workflow, I mapped the current process to better understand how it operates and identify users’ needs. This analysis, informed by our interviews, helped guide updates and improvements to the system.

Customer Journeys

Mapped based on the current workflow on the existing platform to identify pain points, inefficiencies, and opportunities for improvement.

User Stories

Based on interviews with doctors, clinical leads (CTL), clinical research associates (CRA), and other healthcare professionals:

As a user, I want to:

• keep track of studies efficiently.

• view open tasks related to a specific study.

• create different types of tasks depending on my needs (e.g., issue, risk, decision).

• escalate tasks when necessary.

• request review or approval from a superior.

• close or reopen tasks as needed.

• save tasks as drafts if I don’t have all required information.

• filter and organize data in multiple ways for clarity.

Heuristics Analysis

Since users were already relying on another platform for similar tasks, I conducted a heuristic analysis of that platform to identify strengths we could retain, areas that required improvement, and additional features that might be necessary to enhance the user experience.

Objective

To design a user centered platform that streamlines the management and tracking of clinical studies for doctors, clinical leads, and healthcare professionals.

The system aims to provide clear visibility into risks, issues, protocol deviations, and actions, while enabling collaboration, task management, notifications, and escalation workflows. Reducing complexity and improving efficiency across multiple studies.