BC Health Research Connection – REACH BC

In British Columbia, a mere 15% of residents were aware of the available health and research participation opportunities, despite a staggering 70% expressing interest in participating in health research. The BC Health Research Connection project was conceived with the mission to bridge this awareness gap, facilitating meaningful connections between patients and the public with relevant health research opportunities.

Challenge

The primary challenge was to design an online platform that would revolutionize the way patients and public volunteers discover research opportunities that align with their health conditions or personal interests.

Outcomes

The design of the platform tested well with users during the solution design phase. The project is currently in the final stages of development and is planned to launch early 2020.

The Bottum Line

In order for it to be successful it needs to become the centralized resources for researchers to post their opportunities and find study participants and patient partners.

Strategy

Frictionaless onboarding and communications between researchers and participants were identified as key design problems. It must be easy for new users to sign up and identify their areas of interest. We created a functional prototype allowing us to test the interaction design with users, focusing especially on the steps where new users define their research interests.