Jackie Nam, Product Designer
Chapter 2 · A patient recovering at home

Chapter 2

Vigor Medical Systems

COPD patients were dropping out of rehab at home. I designed the patient app and the platform their coaches use, and 84% stayed in the program after three months.

Role
Product Design Lead: research, UX and service design
Tools
Figma, ProtoPie
Team
Providers, a PM and engineers
Timeline
2022 to 2023
A patient in a wheelchair outdoors on a garden path

The Problem

Nearly two in five older adults with COPD live more than 10 miles from the nearest pulmonary rehab center, so Vigor brought rehab home: an app for patients and a health coach for each of them. Sign-ups were strong, but 40% of patients dropped off within three months.

Coaches were stretched too. Each managed 40 or more patients, answering texts in real time while keeping track of their data in spreadsheets.

Problem statement: patients

How might we help COPD patients stay with their rehab at home?

Problem statement: health coaches

How might we give health coaches their time back for care?

Research

I ran workshops with the CEO, the CPO, pulmonologists, health coaches and operations staff to find the gaps in the service, and usability tests with five COPD patients.

A remote workshop board covered in sticky notes
Cross-Functional Workshops, Led cross-function workshops to identify service gaps across clinical team, health coaches, and operations.
A usability session showing the patient app beside session notes
Usability Testing, Conducted sessions with COPD patients to surface critical pain points in app experience

What We Learned

  1. Patients couldn’t see their own progress, so the daily effort was hard to keep up.

    Led to: Daily tasks, milestones and progress rings that show how far they’ve come.

  2. Older patients struggled with small buttons and deep menus.

    Led to: Larger buttons, a clearer hierarchy and simpler navigation.

  3. Coaches kept patient data in Google Sheets and messaged patients somewhere else.

    Led to: One platform for tracking data, logging notes and messaging patients.

Design Decisions

Personal Progress, Not Competition

Considered
Points, streaks and leaderboards that rank patients against each other.
Chose
Progress rings and milestones that show each patient how far they’ve come from where they started.
Why
Patients start rehab in very different places. Ranking them would discourage the ones who need it most; seeing their own progress gave them a sense of control, and that kept them going.

One Task per Screen

Considered
A dashboard that shows every task, metric and message at once.
Chose
One main task per screen, with larger buttons, a clear hierarchy and simpler navigation.
Why
In usability tests, older patients struggled with small buttons and deep menus. Fewer choices per screen made each day’s rehab easy to start.

One Platform for Coaches

Considered
Improve the Google Sheets coaches already used, or add a messaging tool beside them.
Chose
One platform for tracking patient data, logging notes and messaging patients.
Why
Each coach managed 40 or more patients across spreadsheets and texts. Bringing it into one place cut the admin and gave them time back for care.

The Design

Designed for patientsGamifying Progress, Daily tasks, milestones, and progress rings show patients how far they've come, keeping them motivated through rehab.
Designed for patientsDesigning for Accessibility, Larger buttons, clear hierarchy, and simpler navigation make the app easy to use for older patients.
Designed for providersFrom Google Sheets to CMS Platform, One platform replaced spreadsheets, so coaches can track patient data, log notes, and message patients in one place.

Results

These are outcomes of the whole program, the app and coaching together, for about 40 patients over three to six months.

Patient retention after 3 months
84%
Average increase in daily steps
148%
Reduction in emergency visits
40%

Source: Vigor program data.

“Doctors just don’t have time to go over with every patient. But I can see that Vigor has given me the tools. That made a difference.”

A Vigor patient

Reflections

Designing for Coaches Was Designing for Patients
When we cut coaches’ admin, they had more time for actual care, and that showed up in patient outcomes.
Connection Mattered as Much as Features
Patients said they felt better simply from talking to their coach regularly. A reminder to design for connection, not just the interface.

Notes

  1. American Thoracic Society, 2021: of 10.3 million Medicare beneficiaries with COPD, 38% lived more than 10 miles from the nearest pulmonary rehab center.
  2. Vigor program data, about 40 patients over 3 to 6 months.