Designing an At-Home Genomic Testing Service for Cancer Patients

The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) wanted to design a free at-home genomic testing service that would seamlessly connect to a patient portal with personalized disease analytics.

Our Challenge

How do you make complex genomic testing accessible and meaningful for cancer patients managing an overwhelming diagnosis?

Our Approach

We conducted comprehensive user research with physicians, patients, and caregivers to understand the real barriers to genomic testing adoption, then designed a service that meets patients where they are in their cancer journey.

Impact

Created a scalable, human-centered service grounded in the real needs of Myeloma patients. 1,016 patients had enrolled in the study as of Oct 2022.

Impact

Created a scalable, human-centered service grounded in the real needs of Myeloma patients. 1,016 patients had enrolled in the study as of Oct 2022.

Team

  • Strategist & Service Designer (me)

  • Strategy Consultants (2)

  • Healthcare Facilitator (1)

  • Clinical Partner Stakeholders (4)

My Role

Lead service designer focusing on patient journey and care coordination

  • Led and conducted qualitative research across three user groups

  • Led design of patient journey maps

  • Designed and led workshops with client

  • Defined service concepts in collaboration with cross-functional stakeholders

  • Worked with other designers to prototype the patient portal experience

Impact

Research
Research

To ground CureCloud in real-world needs, we conducted in-depth qualitative research with:

18

People with Multiple Myeloma

8

Caregivers of people with MM

8

Doctors who treat MM patients

We developed audience-specific guides and worked with a professional facilitator to ensure interviews were both thoughtful and trauma-informed.

Our goals:

  1. Surface emotional and logistical barriers to participation

  2. Map patient and caregiver decision-making timelines

  3. Identify opportunities for building trust in the new testing service

Read the full Research Guide

Read the full Research Guide

I worked with two designers from Doma's agency partner to create mockups of the patient portal for user testing.

I worked with two designers from Doma's agency partner to create mockups of the patient portal for user testing.

To synthesize our findings, I led the creation of a detailed Patient Journey Map. This became a shared touchstone across teams and stakeholders — capturing emotional states, system pain points, and key inflection moments across time.

Zoom in to the Figma file get a better look!

✨ from insight to action

Discovery: Two Distinct Patient Archetypes

Our research revealed that patients don't approach genomic testing the same way. We identified two distinct archetypes that required completely different service experiences:

Reactive Patients (Larry): Wait for problems to arise before seeking help. Need high-touch support and clear guidance when they do engage with testing.

Proactive Patients (Pamela): Actively seek information and want to stay ahead of their condition. Prefer self-service options and detailed analytics.

Critical Design Implications

  • Personalized pathways: Create different service flows for each archetype rather than one-size-fits-all

  • Flexible support levels: Reactive patients need more hand-holding; Proactive patients want autonomy

  • Tailored communication: Different messaging and touchpoints based on patient behavior patterns

🎯 defining the CureCloud Service Strategy

We used our research insights to define the following design principles:

  1. Meet patients where they are — physically and emotionally

  2. Build trust early — before asking for participation

  3. Make every step clear, optional when possible, and low-effort

We ran collaborative workshop sessions with the MMRF to make sure we had their input and buy-in at each stage of designing the CureCloud service. The final specifications of the service were captured in written documentation and the Service Journeybelow.

We designed a service strategy that accounted for the needs, goals, constraints and concerns of patients, caregivers, and physicians.

We layered this with communication touchpoint mapping to ensure we weren’t overloading patients at fragile moments.

Outcomes

As of October 2022, 1,016 patients had been enrolled in the CureCloud Study using the at-home testing service.

🎯 defining the CureCloud Service Strategy

We used our research insights to define the following design principles:

  1. Meet patients where they are — physically and emotionally

  2. Build trust early — before asking for participation

  3. Make every step clear, optional when possible, and low-effort

We ran collaborative workshop sessions with the MMRF to make sure we had their input and buy-in at each stage of designing the CureCloud service. The final specifications of the service were captured in written documentation and the Service Journeybelow.

We designed a service strategy that accounted for the needs, goals, constraints and concerns of patients, caregivers, and physicians.

We layered this with communication touchpoint mapping to ensure we weren’t overloading patients at fragile moments.

Outcomes

As of October 2022, 1,016 patients had been enrolled in the CureCloud Study using the at-home testing service.