ASPEN INTERACTIVE CONSULT TOOL

Leveraging Technology to Increase Patient Literacy and Drive Treatment Acceptance

highlights

Product vision and management
Creative direction
User research
Lo-fidelity and Hi-fidelity prototypes
Product management
Field training and adoption

The Challenge

The way our Office Managers present dental treatment plans to our patients has a significant impact on patient satisfaction and treatment acceptance. With over 1,000 Aspen Dental locations, about 50% office staff turnover, treatment complexity, patient health literacy levels and new product offerings, a high variability across all of our offices was causing an inconsistent patient experience. As we continued to grow as an organization, so did our need for a way to standardize the way we present treatment, while maintaining an engaging, differentiated experience for our patients.

The Plan

Create a digital, interactive experience built on the foundations of what we know creates a successful consultation. There were several key considerations when building the experience:

Key foundations of a great consult

By leveraging the experience and knowledge of our field and clinical teams, we were able to pinpoint the key aspects that we know create a great consultation. This included hearing from Office Managers what questions they get asked about the most about our various service lines and understanding from a patient perspective, what triggers interest and excitement to say, “yes!” to treatment. 

Increase health literacy

People only remember 10% of what they hear, but about 80% of what they see. A lack of patient understanding contributes to a lack of treatment acceptance. Providing clear, concise visuals to help patients quickly understand treatment options was a critical part in how ICT was designed. 

High empathy and human connection

ICT was not designed to be handed over to the patient to click through independently. Rather, the conversation continues to be OM-led, with ICT sitting between the OM and patient as a supporting resource throughout the consultation. We kept this key aspect in mind as we designed the experience. For example, the copy was crafted to be easily scannable; not for the patient to sit there and read, but rather as a quick reminder to the OM of what points to hit on in order to reinforce empathy. High-impact lifestyle visuals were created for the patient to absorb as the OM is speaking, to begin seeing themselves in these stories of what’s possible with an Aspen solution.  

Time efficiency

We of course, needed to be very conscience of adding any time to the consultation process with ICT. We knew that every second counts during this critical stage of the patient visit. With that, we designed the tool to be flexible to meet the patient where they’re at. The navigation was designed to be simple and easy for Office Managers to quickly pivot between pages to answer any specific questions from the patient. The tool was designed as a responsive website, so staff has the flexibility to show assets, such as the introduction videos, from any device. During the pilot, we discovered the opportunity to play videos for the patient within the exam room chair – Which we heard from OMs can actually speed up the consultation time, as patients come in already prepped.