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Patient monitoring dashboard design: start with one number
Patient monitoring dashboard design: build the screen around the number patients check first, design the low result first and show who acts next.
Short answer
A good patient monitoring dashboard is built around the one number the patient checks first, shown with what it means and what happens next. Everything else, from trends and symptoms to the device’s battery, sits around that number and earns its place by answering the patient’s next question.
For someone in chemotherapy, the morning often starts with one question: are my counts good enough for treatment? For many patients the answer still means a trip to hospital for a blood test, and sometimes a long way to travel to hear “not today”.
When the test moves home, the trip goes but the worry stays, so the screen that shows the result has to carry it well. Here’s what we’ve learned designing one.
Why build a patient dashboard around one number?
Because on a hard morning the patient has one question, and the screen should answer it before they scroll. On Oncopath, a dashboard we designed for people in chemotherapy, that number is this morning’s blood count.
We’ll admit designers have a soft spot for a twelve-tile dashboard. It looks impressive in a pitch. At 7:30 in the morning, five days into a cycle, it looks like homework.
So the number gets the biggest type on the screen, a plain label (“This morning’s count”), its unit and one word: low or normal. Colour backs up the word. It never replaces it, because a patient shouldn’t need good colour vision to know whether today is a treatment day.
The greeting does quiet work too. “Good morning, María. Day 5 of cycle 3.” Before any data, the patient knows where they are in the treatment.
Counts grouped by cycle, with the call line drawn in. Design: Dtail Studio for Oncopath.
What should sit next to the number?
Only the things that turn a number into a decision. This is the checklist we work from:
The line that matters.
Show the threshold the care team cares about. On Oncopath, the chart of counts across treatment draws a call line, so a dip reads as expected or as a reason to talk.The readings a nurse would ask for.
White cells and temperature, next to the main count, because those are the next questions on the phone.The trend across cycles.
A low count on day 5 can be normal. Grouping readings by cycle makes that visible without a medical degree.How the patient has felt.
A daily check-in that takes seconds, with its own chart.When the reading was taken.
The time of the last test, and the battery if a home device is involved, so missing data is never mistaken for good news.
The check-in deserves more design time than it usually gets. In a randomised study of 766 patients having chemotherapy for advanced cancer, people who reported their symptoms online between visits, with nurses alerted to severe or worsening ones, lived a median of 31.2 months against 26 months with usual care. Nurses acted on 77% of the alerts. That’s a care result, not a design result, but it’s a strong reason to make the check-in the easiest thing on the screen. Our post on why patients stop using health apps covers how to keep that habit going after week two.
On a low morning, the screen says who calls and by when. Design: Dtail Studio for Oncopath.
How do you design for the bad morning?
Design the low result first, because it matters most and it’s the state teams test least. Most dashboards are designed with healthy demo data and then patched for the red cases.
Low counts aren’t a cosmetic problem. In one US study of chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia, 8.1% of patients treated in hospital died there. A low count shouldn’t just turn a tile red. It should lead somewhere.
On Oncopath, the low state says who will act and when: “Hannah calls you before 11:00.” A name and a time. No siren, no exclamation marks, and no “contact your healthcare provider” in grey 10-point type at the bottom of the card.
If a carer helps with treatment, design what they see on that morning too. Our post on one app for patients and the people who care goes through how to share a view without taking control away from the patient.
What did designing Oncopath teach us?
That the number has to look and read the same everywhere it appears. On a tired morning, a patient shouldn’t have to work out whether the 0.9 on the home screen is the same 0.9 on the chart or in a reminder.
So on Oncopath the count keeps the same figure, unit, word and colour wherever it shows up. For a tired patient, that consistency is worth more than any clever chart. You can see more of the dashboard on Dribbble.
How we’d approach it
We’d start with the patient’s first question and work outwards. For a remote monitoring product, that usually means:
Find the first number.
Ask patients and nurses what they check first. Build the screen around that answer.Write the bad morning first.
Design the low, missing and late results before the normal one, with who acts and by when.Agree the lines with your clinicians.
Thresholds, call lines and wording, signed off once and used everywhere.Test with patients on treatment.
Real patients, real timings, including the morning after a hard day.Design the device and the screen together.
Same number, same words, same states.
Bring your clinical thresholds, how your care team responds to alerts, and any pilot data you have. More on how we work.
FAQ
Should a patient dashboard show raw lab values?
Yes, with the unit and a plain word next to them. Patients on treatment often know their numbers well. Hiding them feels patronising, and showing them alone is confusing.
How much data is too much?
If a tile doesn’t answer a question the patient would ask today, move it one tap away. The full history can live behind the main screen.
Does the dashboard need clinical sign-off?
If the screen interprets results or suggests what to do, it may count as medical device software, so bring regulatory advice in early. The wording of a low result is a clinical decision as much as a design one.
Should patients and clinicians see the same dashboard?
Same data, different jobs. The patient needs today and what happens next. The care team needs everyone at a glance and who to call first.
Try this today
Open your patient dashboard and cover everything below the top third of the screen. From that alone, can a patient tell whether today is a good day and what happens next? Now switch to your lowest test result and try again.
If you’re designing a monitoring product and want a second pair of eyes, let’s talk.
About the author: Rori Thompson is a Content Writer at Dtail Studio and writes about product design, UX and the details that make an app easy to use.
Sources: ScienceDaily, Advanced cancer patients survive longer when given chance to report symptoms during treatment (2017), Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice, Incidence, treatment, and consequences of chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia (2014)
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