MindfulMap
An interactive dashboard for mental health clinicians and hospital managers in Toronto to find information about other hospitals.
Master's Research Project
Challenge:
Academic-affiliated clinics (AAC) are a collection of hospitals and facilities within Toronto that play a major role in providing essential healthcare services, especially mental healthcare (MH), to a majority of Toronto’s children and youth population. Although AAC facilities are connected by affiliation, each clinic provides services, intake criteria and treatments that are specific to the domain they serve. This lack of standardization creates isolated systems that complicate clinical or administrative tasks and exacerbates existing healthcare barriers, especially during opportunities of inter-hospital collaboration and communication. Currently, AAC clinicians are not equipped with the framework to bridge the information gap between hospitals and navigate the various isolated systems without using an eclectic mix of documentation, spreadsheets and softwares.
Solution:
The proposed solution is the development of an interactive tool that enables users to simultaneously explore and analyze multiple layers of MH system information through a filter-based query. The interactive dashboard will provide fidelity in analyzing data spatially through a geographical format or comparatively through a tabular format. By focusing on semantic and organization interoperability, MindfulMap’s design system allows users to understand each AAC’s nuances and create through-lines for various layers of information within a clinical setting. Through the development of MindfulMap, AAC clinicians and clinical managers will be able to efficiently find and consume clinical information to create better informed decisions and positively impact the mental wellbeing of the children and youths of Toronto.
Tools
Figma, Tableau, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
Client
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
Supervisor
Prof. Nicholas Woolridge (primary), Prof. Michael Corrin (secondary)
Content Advisor
Dr. Stephanie Ameis
Team Members
Vanessa Nguyen
Target Audience
Mental healthcare clinicians and hospital managers in Toronto
MindfulMap
An interactive dashboard for mental health clinicians and hospital managers in Toronto to find information about other hospitals.
Master's Research Project
Challenge:
Academic-affiliated clinics (AAC) are a collection of hospitals and facilities within Toronto that play a major role in providing essential healthcare services, especially mental healthcare (MH), to a majority of Toronto’s children and youth population. Although AAC facilities are connected by affiliation, each clinic provides services, intake criteria and treatments that are specific to the domain they serve. This lack of standardization creates isolated systems that complicate clinical or administrative tasks and exacerbates existing healthcare barriers, especially during opportunities of inter-hospital collaboration and communication. Currently, AAC clinicians are not equipped with the framework to bridge the information gap between hospitals and navigate the various isolated systems without using an eclectic mix of documentation, spreadsheets and softwares.
Solution:
The proposed solution is the development of an interactive tool that enables users to simultaneously explore and analyze multiple layers of MH system information through a filter-based query. The interactive dashboard will provide fidelity in analyzing data spatially through a geographical format or comparatively through a tabular format. By focusing on semantic and organization interoperability, MindfulMap’s design system allows users to understand each AAC’s nuances and create through-lines for various layers of information within a clinical setting. Through the development of MindfulMap, AAC clinicians and clinical managers will be able to efficiently find and consume clinical information to create better informed decisions and positively impact the mental wellbeing of the children and youths of Toronto.
Tools
Figma, Tableau, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
Client
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
Academic Supervisors
Prof. Nicholas Woolridge (primary), Prof. Michael Corrin (secondary)
Content Advisor
Dr. Stephanie Ameis
Team members
Vanessa Nguyen
Target Audience
Mental healthcare clinicians and hospital managers in Toronto
Pre-Production Process
Literature Research
At the beginning of the project, we conducted literature research to understand the state of the mental healthcare system in Toronto and what information systems currently exist within other healthcare systems. We wanted to know what benefits and drawbacks these programs had on the productivity and coordination of healthcare clinicians as it applies to the wellbeing of children and youths.
Media Audit
A matrix was created with the existing mapping or information systems in the healthcare system to compare their strengths and weaknesses.
Survey
We analyzed and synthesized a survey containing information about each hospital conducted by Dr. Stephanie Ameis to the hospital managers of Toronto. These results provided quantitative information about each of the facilities that would be represented in MindfulMap.
Interviews and User Persona
Informal interviews with mental health clinicians and a hospital manager provided context for the creation of two user personas. These formed the basis of our target audience and was influential in the design process as guides.
Our research and audits highlighted these key factors:
- Communication between hospitals and mental health facilities about clinical procedures/details is a big frustration point.
- The usage for information systems within a healthcare facility is rarely uni-functional. A system with flexibility in its query and information presentation is ideal.
- Uptake for new systems is difficult.
Goals and Objectives
MindfulMap aims to streamline queries for information and improve clinician-clinician and clinician-patient communication by creating a centralized tool that can display mental health information efficiently.
MindfulMap aims to streamline queries for information and improve clinician-clinician and clinician-patient communication by creating a centralized tool that can display mental health information efficiently.
To accomplish this goal, the following objectives are set:
- Create an interactive system capable of displaying multilayered data intuitively through the use of graphical representations.
- Design and incorporate a filter-based query system that will allow users to refine the data displayed within MindfulMap.
- Create a database system that can easily be updated for future iterations.
Design
Planning
Function Justification
Every function that is designed into MindfulMap serves a purpose. The following is a break-down of what each function’s intended usage is for.
Style Guide
Wireframes
Prototypes
Two prototypes were created: a Figma prototype to showcase the ideal design of MindfulMap and a Tableau prototype to showcase the functionality of MindfulMap as a live beta. View the prototypes using the images below.
Credits
Special thanks to our steering committee (Dr. Alice Charach, Dr. Louise Gallagher, Dr. Nicole Kozloff, Dr. Liisa Kuuter, Dr. Krista Lemke, Dr. Greg Lodenquai) and the Child and Youth Acute Care Collaborative (CAYACC) committee for all the feedback and effort in helping MindfulMap come to life.
Special thanks as well to the Ebony St. Rose for all your insight on the Clinical Manager role.
Thank you to Ben Gane and his team of technology specialists that helped incorporate MindfulMap into the University of Toronto’s Department of Psychiatry website.
Lastly, to our classmates and professors at the Biomedical Communications program who provided extensive feedback throughout this project and participated in our usability test sessions.
References
- Chen, R.-F., & Hsiao, J.-L. (2012). An investigation on physicians’ acceptance of hospital information systems: A case study. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 81(12), 810–820. doi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2012.05
- Malla, A., Shah, J., Iyer, S., Boksa, P., Joober, R., Andersson, N., Lal, S., & Fuhrer, R. (2018). Youth Mental Health Should Be a Top Priority for Health Care in Canada. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 63(4), 216–222. https:// doi.org/10.1177/0706743718758969
- Moroz, N., Moroz, I., D’Angelo, M.S. (2020). Mental health services in Canada: Barriers and cost-effective solutions to increase access. Healthcare Management Forum. 2020;33(6):282-287. doi:10.1177/084047042093391?
- Pomare, C., Long, J. C., Ellis, L. A., Churruca, K., & Braithwaite, J. (2018). Interprofessional collaboration in mental health settings: a social network analysis. Journal of Interprofessional Care.Westin, A. M., Barksdale, C. L., & Stephan, S. H. (2014). The effect of waiting time on youth engagement to evidence based treatments. Community mental health journal, 50(2), 221–228. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-012-9585-$
- Sabooniha, N., Toohey, D., & Lee, K. (2012). An evaluation of hospital information systems integration approaches. Proceedings of the International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communications and Informatics – ICACCI ’12. doi:10.1145/2345396.2345479
- Westin, A. M., Barksdale, C. L., & Stephan, S. H. (2014). The effect of waiting time on youth engagement to evidence based treatments. Community mental health journal, 50(2), 221–228. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-012-9585-$
- Williams, M. E., Latta, J., & Conversano, P. (2008). Eliminating the wait for mental health services. The journal of behavioral health services & research, 35(1), 107-114_
- Zifkin, C., Montreuil, M., Beauséjour, M.-È., Picard, S., Gendron-Cloutier, L., Carnevale, F. A. (2021). An exploration of youth and parents’ experiences of child mental health service access. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing. Oct;35(5):549-555. doi: 10.1016/ j.apnu.2021.06.006. Centre of Addiction and Mental Health. (2003). Challenges & Choices: Finding Mental Health Services in Ontario.