Situation
Inovalon’s ePASS clinical assessment tool had operated for over with a great amount of success as one of Inovalon’s flagship products and consistent revenue generator. The Its success notwithstanding, the Product team had fundamental misunderstandings about its users. The product team assumed doctors and clinicians were independently completing SOAP note assessments, but completion rates remained stagnant, directly impacting revenue streams for Inovalon, health plan clients, and provider cash incentives. In reality, while clinicians signed off on assessments as legally required, support staff performed the majority of data entry work. Some health plan clients were even hiring dedicated support staff specifically to complete ePASS assessments across provider offices. The scale varied dramatically - from supporting 5 doctors in one office to managing 400 offices and thousands of doctors.
Task
ROLE: Researcher, Designer, Facilitator, Product Management
RESPONSIBILITIES: Comprehensive Field Research, Executive Facilitation, Legacy Application Redesign
COLLABORATORS: Chief Medical Officer, VP of Product, Product Directors, Engineering, Design Operations, VP of Design
As the sole design resource supporting ePASS and clinical teams, I was responsible for conducting Inovalon’s first comprehensive end-user research initiative to understand why SOAP note completion rates were suboptimal. My role included identifying real user needs, organizing multi-regional research, training product teams on user research methodologies, and facilitating strategic workshops to drive product improvements based on actual user insights rather than buyer assumptions. I was also tasked with redesigning an application that hadn’t been redesigned in over a decade.
Action
Multi-Regional User Research Discovery: Conducted comprehensive interviews with over 20 users across 5 states and Puerto Rico, revealing that only one clinician could complete assessments independently. The research uncovered that support staff and "practice managers" were the primary users, often managing assessments for hundreds of providers.
Primary persona’s journey based on research
Critical User Insight Synthesis: Discovered fundamental product assumptions were incorrect through systematic analysis. CMOs (chief medical officers) explicitly stated they wouldn't "burden" providers with additional tools.
“There is only so much I can burden my docs with. When I suggested completing notes, they told me, ‘we will hang you if you make us do this.’ ”
“All primary care providers regardless where they are at have got too much on our plate…we are already finishing charts, doing work at home, there is just not time for providers to do this type of work.””
While clinicians submit assessments, it is largely a practice manager or coder (clinical associate was the internal role name) who complete the data entry as the clinician reviews for accuracy and submitting. Tracking what assessments were completed was also a major issue with clinical associates who had to resort to tracking manually.
Example of the manual process of tracking SOAP note completion
Strategic Workshop Facilitation: Led Inovalon's first user-centered design workshop using MURAL and structured ideation and design thinking frameworks, which was driven by the research conducted. Collaborated with design team colleagues to create workshop plans focused on two critical questions: "How might we create more transparency around SOAP note submission and tracking?" and "How might we make it easier for those supporting providers to create accounts?"
Primary Persona Defined
Full day workshop facilitation with cross functional leadership
Actionable Insight Development: Identified specific improvement opportunities including enhanced search functionality, UI streamlining, button placement optimization, and EHR (electronic health record) integration needs to eliminate duplicate data entry.
Legacy Application Redesign: Working within a legacy framework redesigned SOAP note tracking, Clinical Associate (Practice Manager) views and access and allows the ability to assign notes to provider and follow-up for completion.
Before and after design of home page
Improved tracking
Results
Results include:
A research based primary persona being redefined from clinician to practice manager/clinical associate
A revenue-impacting insights directly addressing SOAP note completion barriers
The first user-centered design workshop established at Inovalon
An EHR integration strategy validated for future development priorities
Over the first year of launch we saw a:
25% reduction in abandoned SOAP notes
37% increase in clinical associates account creation reducing inbound calls for manual account creation
45-60 day improvement in completion rates
The research and redesign fundamentally transformed Inovalon's understanding of ePASS users and their workflows, positioning the product for significant improvements in completion rates by addressing the actual user ecosystem rather than perceived users.
