Enhancing access to nephrology care: telenephrology dashboard optimization via human-centered design

TL;DR

This paper describes the development of a telenephrology dashboard optimized through human-centered design to improve kidney health monitoring and remote consultations for patients.

Contribution

A novel telenephrology dashboard optimized via human-centered design to enhance remote nephrology care delivery.

Findings

Three critical needs identified: improved data clarity, accuracy, and balance between standardization and customization.

Five dashboard prototypes were iteratively refined into a final version with five core features.

Dashboard includes predictive kidney disease progression models and customizable views.

Abstract

Ensuring that patients, especially those in underserved areas, have access to specialized nephrology care is essential to addressing the increasing burden of chronic kidney disease. To address this, we developed the Telenephrology Dashboard for the 150,000 Veterans served by the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Health Care System (ICVAHCS). Our goal was to optimize the dashboard as a comprehensive and practical tool for end-users in order to monitor kidney health and facilitate remote nephrology consultations.

The optimization process adhered to the Human-Centered Design (HCD) framework, encompassing five stages: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test. Research team members spent 10 h observing nephrologists during remote consultations and supplemented these observations with semi-structured interviews with clinicians to gain insights into existing workflows and challenges. A rapid ideation workshop was then held to propose innovative solutions that balanced technical needs with user preferences. Subsequent prototyping and testing helped refine and evaluate the proposed designs, identifying key areas for improvement.

The iterative design process identified three critical needs: (1) improved clarity in visual data representation, (2) enhanced data accuracy, and (3) a balance between standardized features and customization options. Five dashboard prototypes were created, tested, and iteratively refined into a final version. The completed Telenephrology Dashboard includes five core features: (1) graphical representation of kidney function trends, (2) tables summarizing key lab data, (3) functionality to examine specific events in detail, (4) customizable views tailored to user workflows, and (5) integration of predictive kidney disease progression models.

The Telenephrology Dashboard was developed using a Human-Centered Design approach to improve remote nephrology consultations. Future efforts will focus on evaluating its impact on user satisfaction, referring clinician satisfaction, access to nephrology care, and patient care outcomes.

Not applicable, as this is not a clinical trial.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12882-025-04076-5.

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