Elli Cares app design: a DesignRush awards finalist
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5 Nov 2026
Digital health UX agency: 7 US studios to consider
Choosing a digital health UX agency in the US: 7 studios with real health work, the criteria we used and questions to ask on the first call.
Short answer
The right digital health UX agency for a US startup shows real health work on its own site, has done research with patients and clinicians, understands HIPAA without making it the pitch, and can work at startup speed. Seven studios that show this: Artefact, Dtail Studio, Fresh Tilled Soil, Fuzzy Math, Koru UX Design, Ramotion and Sidebench.
There’s money in the category, which means a lot of startups are hiring designers at the same time. Rock Health counts $11.1B of venture funding across 358 deals for US digital health startups in the first three quarters of 2026, with an average deal of $31.0M.
The people on the other side of your screens are already used to digital care. In ONC’s analysis of 2024 national survey data, 77% of individuals were offered online access to their medical records and 65% used it in the past year. Your product gets compared with the portal they opened last week, fairly or not.
Our list of healthcare UX design agencies in Europe covers the other side of the Atlantic. This one is for US founders. Dtail Studio publishes this blog and is on the list, judged by the same rules as everyone else. Yes, we checked our own homework too.
Four checks before you shortlist a digital health UX agency. Framework by Dtail Studio.
How should you choose a digital health UX agency?
By what the studio has already shipped in health and who it talked to while doing it. We used four criteria and only included studios whose own site shows them:
Health work shown.
A named health case study on the studio’s site that says what was designed. A logo strip doesn’t count.Research with patients and clinicians.
The case study says who took part, or the studio says so in plain terms.HIPAA awareness.
HIPAA applies to health care providers, health plans, clearinghouses and the business associates that handle their data, per HHS. Your designer doesn’t need to be a lawyer, but should know what it means for logins, notifications and what shows up on a lock screen.Startup fit.
Work that a Seed to Series B team can afford and act on, not only enterprise programmes.
Nobody paid to be here and we didn’t ask permission. Studios are in alphabetical order, and we left out any we couldn’t check on their own site.
Which US studios have real digital health work?
These seven, each described only by what its own site shows.
Artefact.
Health work: turned PRISM, a paper-based emotional wellbeing programme from Seattle Children’s, into a smartphone app for young patients. Research: the case study lists generative research but doesn’t say who took part. Good for: mission-led products where tone and behaviour change matter.Dtail Studio.
Location: Barcelona and California. Health work: OXOS, the US maker of the MC2 portable X-ray system, whose FDA clearance expanded to paediatric imaging in March 2026; and the Elli Cares app for people living with cognitive impairment and their families, with simpler flows and a high-contrast interface (case study). Research: the case study describes the problems found, not the research method. Good for: startups that want brand, website and app from one team.Fresh Tilled Soil.
Location: Boston. Health work: a design sprint for eClinical Solutions, a clinical data platform. Research: the prototype was tested with real users, including data managers. Good for: a fast, focused sprint on one hard workflow.Fuzzy Math.
Location: Chicago and Toronto. Health work: a redesign of ArthritisPower, a symptom tracking app for people with chronic illness. Research: patients shared their own stories, and the studio says it has researched with physicians, nurses, pharmacists and patients. Good for: research-heavy patient apps.Koru UX Design.
Location: Wilmington, Delaware and Pune, India. Health work: an AI copilot for post-visit care inside EHR workflows. Research: observation and interviews with clinicians. Good for: clinician-facing and EHR products.Ramotion.
Location: San Francisco, with Los Angeles and New York. Health work: a member portal, website and UI kit for EMI Health. Research: user flows built with jobs to be done; member interviews aren’t described. Good for: consumer-facing brand and product together.Sidebench.
Location: works across the US. Health work: Baby Steps LA, a NICU discharge app with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Research: focus groups with parents, clinical observation and interviews with NICU staff. Good for: design and build in one place.
What should you weigh beyond the portfolio?
Who they talked to, more than how the screens look. A good health case study names the people in the room: patients, caregivers, nurses, the front desk. If it only shows final screens, you can’t tell whether anyone checked them against a real Tuesday in a clinic.
Be a little wary of a pitch that leads with HIPAA. Compliance belongs to your engineers, lawyers and vendors. A designer who knows the rule and then spends the meeting on your consent screen and caregiver flow is a better sign than one who sells you the acronym. Our post on digital health app design for Europe and the US covers where the rules really change the screens.
How to choose: a short checklist
Run every shortlisted studio through the same five checks.
One health case study you can open.
With a client name and a clear description of what was designed.Named research participants.
Patients, caregivers or clinicians, not just “users”.The right side of the product.
Patient apps and clinician tools are different jobs. Pick a studio that has done yours.A senior person on your project.
Ask who designs, not just who sells. They’re often charmingly different people.Work you can ship.
Files your engineers can build from, and a component kit they can reuse.
Our guide on how to choose a HealthTech design agency goes deeper on contracts and team fit.
What should you ask on the first call?
Ask questions that only a studio with real health experience can answer well.
Walk me through one health project. Who did you talk to, and what changed after you did?
How do you recruit patients or clinicians for research, and how long does it take?
What would you not put in a push notification for our product?
Who on your side would work on our project day to day?
What will our engineers get from you at the end of each phase?
Listen for specifics. A studio that answers with a story about a real screen usually has one.
How we’d approach it
We’d start with your riskiest screen and the people who’ll use it. For a US digital health startup, that usually means:
Map who touches the product.
Patients, caregivers, clinicians and admins, and what each one needs to see.Talk to a few of them.
Short interviews before anything is redesigned.Design the riskiest flow first.
Onboarding, consent or the caregiver handoff, whichever carries the most trust.Hand engineers a kit.
Components and specs they can build from straight away.
Bring your current product, any research you have and the questions your pilots keep raising. Our post on the first 30 days with a HealthTech design partner shows what that early stretch looks like. More on how we work.
FAQ
Should a US digital health startup hire a US-based agency?
Not necessarily. Time zone overlap and US health experience matter more than the address. Several studios on this list work across countries.
Does our design agency need to sign a business associate agreement?
Only if it will handle protected health information. Most design work uses test data, so ask early and keep real patient data out of design files.
Why is Dtail Studio on this list?
Dtail Studio publishes this blog. It’s included under the same criteria and format as the others, in alphabetical order.
Try this today
Open the health case study of every studio on your shortlist. For each one, write down who the studio talked to. If you can’t fill in that line from the page, ask about it on the first call. If they can’t answer there either, cross them off, kindly.
If you’d like to talk through your shortlist, let’s talk.
About the author: Alma Johnson is Content Lead at Dtail Studio and writes about brand strategy, positioning and how founders explain what they do.
Sources: Rock Health, Q3 2026 market update (October 2026), ASTP/ONC, Data on individuals’ online access to medical records (Chelsea Richwine, July 2025), HHS, Covered entities and business associates
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