Issio Solutions — 2012

Reinventing the healthcare experience

Digitalizing high-stakes hospital workflows from the ground up: Issio Solutions brought real-time patient tracking and mobile accessibility to operating rooms, scaling from an initial 6-month beta to adoption across 7 Ambulatory Surgery Centers across HCA Healthcare network.

Role

Lead Product Designer

Tools

Photoshop, Illustrator

Image 1 — issio solutions 2012.

TL;DR

As the founding designer at Issio Solutions, I led the end-to-end design, branding, and core design system for an EMR application that replaced chaotic physical whiteboards in hospital operating rooms. I worked closely with engineering in a lean startup environment.

KEY IMPACT & SCALE

6 Months

Concept to shipped beta

7 Ambulatory Surgery Centers

Deployed across the HCA Far West Divsion

100% Digital Shift

Replaced manual OR whiteboards with real-time multi-device syncing

Context

The Product: Issio Solutions is an EMR (Electronic Medical Records) application built for iOS and the web, designed to enhance hospital efficiency, patient care, and safety.
The Environment: A lean, agile startup environment operating out of the East Bay. I collaborated closely with 1 Product Manager and 3 Software Engineers, meeting daily and conducting bi-weekly stakeholder reviews.
The Background: Founded by a board-certified anesthesiologist in 2012 around the dawn of the iPad, the startup aimed to digitize chaotic, high-stakes operating room (OR) workflows traditionally managed via physical whiteboards and paper schedules.
My Role: As the founding Product Designer, I led all end-to-end design initiatives from the ground up, shaping the product design, brand identity, design language, and marketing materials. After establishing these foundations, I onboarded and mentored a second designer to help support scaling as we approached our initial beta release.

The Product: Issio Solutions is an EMR (Electronic Medical Records) application built for iOS and the web, designed to enhance hospital efficiency, patient care, and safety.
The Environment: A lean, agile startup environment operating out of the East Bay. I collaborated closely with 1 Product Manager and 3 Software Engineers, meeting daily and conducting bi-weekly stakeholder reviews.
The Background: Founded by a board-certified anesthesiologist in 2012 around the dawn of the iPad, the startup aimed to digitize chaotic, high-stakes operating room (OR) workflows traditionally managed via physical whiteboards and paper schedules.
My Role: As the founding Product Designer, I led all end-to-end design initiatives from the ground up, shaping the product design, brand identity, design language, and marketing materials. After establishing these foundations, I onboarded and mentored a second designer to help support scaling as we approached our initial beta release.

The problem

The Challenge: Operating room (OR) tracking relied heavily on physical whiteboards and paper print-outs. Schedules were constantly moving, leading to costly errors, poor communication, and dangerous friction for doctors and nurses.

Pain points:

Outdated Information: Physical whiteboards and paper print-outs became rapidly obsolete as surgery schedules changed throughout the day.
Siloed Communication: The whiteboard was only useful to someone standing directly in front of it, preventing on-the-go tracking.
High-Stakes Error Risk: Manual erasing and updating created severe operational friction, costing hospitals time and money while risking patient safety.

Pain points:

Outdated Information: Physical whiteboards and paper print-outs became rapidly obsolete as surgery schedules changed throughout the day.
Siloed Communication: The whiteboard was only useful to someone standing directly in front of it, preventing on-the-go tracking.
High-Stakes Error Risk: Manual erasing and updating created severe operational friction, costing hospitals time and money while risking patient safety.

A real-world photo of a manually updated Operating Room whiteboard tracking the day's procedure statuses.

“

The whiteboard is only useful to someone standing right in front of it.

— Practicing Anesthesiologist

Strategy & Approach

To design an effective tool for a clinical setting, we first needed to understand the realities of daily hospital workflows. Our team conducted user interviews with doctors and nurses to prioritize critical product features.

Our primary objective was to ship a functional beta prototype within a strict 6-month timeline. Design and engineering worked closely in parallel, tracking progress through weekly sprint reviews.

Identifying the Critical Bottleneck: Through our research, we discovered that operating room (OR) management was the highest-friction zone in the hospital. It serves as the primary hub where tracking, coordination, and major surgical operations happen in real-time.
High-Stakes Liability: We learned that surgical tracking mistakes carry major financial and operational costs, and in critical care, they can be a matter of life or death.

Our primary objective was to ship a functional beta prototype within a strict 6-month timeline. Design and engineering worked closely in parallel, tracking progress through weekly sprint reviews.

Identifying the Critical Bottleneck: Through our research, we discovered that operating room (OR) management was the highest-friction zone in the hospital. It serves as the primary hub where tracking, coordination, and major surgical operations happen in real-time.
High-Stakes Liability: We learned that surgical tracking mistakes carry major financial and operational costs, and in critical care, they can be a matter of life or death.

The Solution & Development

To solve the friction of high-stakes, manual workflows, I designed a unified Electronic Medical Records (EMR) application tailored for doctors, nurses, administrators, and patients. The platform digitized the entire patient journey, from admission to discharge, across web and mobile devices.

End-to-End Patient Journey: Captured the complete operating room (OR) lifecycle, replacing fragmented paper steps with an automated, reliable digital workflow.
Real-Time Multi-Screen Syncing: Enabled instant tracking, management, and viewing of data across multiple displays, including mobile devices, iPads, and hospital tracking boards, so the entire team stays aligned.
Integrated Vitals Monitoring: Allowed medical staff to view and track patient vitals quickly and accurately directly within the application.
Paperless Automation & Data Entry: Removed the need for physical forms and manual data entry by automatically capturing and securely saving all information straight into the database.

End-to-End Patient Journey: Captured the complete operating room (OR) lifecycle, replacing fragmented paper steps with an automated, reliable digital workflow.
Real-Time Multi-Screen Syncing: Enabled instant tracking, management, and viewing of data across multiple displays, including mobile devices, iPads, and hospital tracking boards, so the entire team stays aligned.
Integrated Vitals Monitoring: Allowed medical staff to view and track patient vitals quickly and accurately directly within the application.
Paperless Automation & Data Entry: Removed the need for physical forms and manual data entry by automatically capturing and securely saving all information straight into the database.

Digitizing patient transfers eliminates the need for manual whiteboard updates. Managing these room changes directly within the app ensures greater accuracy, streamlines communication, and increases overall reliability for the medical staff.

The patient details view, displaying their current position in the OR queue alongside key information captured during intake.

The mobile OR experience featuring live status tracking. Delivering real-time data on the go eliminates outdated information and prevents team miscommunication.

Tablet and mobile views of the OR dashboard. This screen enables doctors and nurses to view all patients in the operating room and effortlessly monitor their vital signs.

Tap to view full size

The outcome

By leading design end-to-end and working in tight alignment with engineering, we delivered a validated product on schedule:

Real-World Clinical Validation: Tested and validated the app in live clinical environments and local Bay Area clinics, receiving strong positive feedback from practicing clinicians.
Enterprise Scale & Adoption: Secured a services agreement with HCA Healthcare, initiating the adoption of our solution across 7 ambulatory surgery centers in their Far West Division. This initial rollout establishes a proven framework with the potential to scale across HCA's network of 166 hospitals and 113 freestanding surgery centers.

Source: Issio adds HCA as new customer

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Reinventing the healthcare experience

Reinventing the healthcare experience

TL;DR

TL;DR

Context

Context

The problem

The problem

Strategy & Approach

Strategy & Approach

The Solution & Development

The Solution & Development

The outcome

The outcome

All Work