PROJECT
Nutre MUAC
UX & UI Design / Development / Project Management
About the client
UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to reach the most disadvantaged children and adolescents – and to protect the rights of every child, everywhere. Unicef does whatever it takes to help children survive, thrive and fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.
To learn more about it, visit the Unicef website.
About the project:
Nutre MUAC is an App designed and developed to register and monitor cases of acute malnutrition in the Dominican Republic.
The goal is to reduce acute malnutrition in children under 5 years of age, pregnant and nursing mothers. This is a response to the crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, a National Plan coordinated by the Ministry of Public Health, National Health Service and UNICEF, with support from USAID and other national partners.
The Plan aims to reach some 20,000 boys and girls between 6 to 60 months and 700 pregnant and lactating mothers. In a first phase, the plan will be implemented in 7 provinces of the border health regions and the eastern region of the country.
Market: Dominican Republic
Platforms: Mobile Apps: Android, Apple & Portal Web (responsive)
Languages: Spanish and English
The Job
Design and develop an app for Android & iOS to register cases of malnutrition in children and pregnant & lactating women to be used by healthcare professionals in the Dominican Republic.
My Role
UX & UI Designer / App Development / Project Manager
What I did
I was responsible for the design, development and project management.
Design:
Responsible for defining the different flows, information architecture and UX / UI design. Conducted co-creation sessions with stakeholders and health professionals. I also created interactive prototypes where it was possible to test and validate the solution with real users and make the necessary adjustments before developing it. The design was made according to user needs and business goals, through Lean UX.
Project Development & Management:
Responsible for developing and managing a team of 6 programmers to develop the app for Android and Apple platforms. The development was made using agile methodology and with several interactions with stake holders and users, delivering products in sprint rounds.
The Results
The App allowed authorized users to treat the cases and supervisors to monitor cases of acute malnutrition in the Dominican Republic in real time. The number of Downloads and usage statistics surpassed UNICEF’s expectations in just a few months of use. The goal of registering cases of women has already been reached and for children is very close.
App satisfaction rating on Google Play and Apple Store is always close to 5 stars and with thousands of downloads. In the Dominican Republic it is already in the TOP 8 of free Apps in the health/medicine category. The App was so successful that it attracted the interest of other countries that would like to implement the solution.
It is very gratifying to be able to improve the quality of life of children and women who suffer from malnutrition through design and technology :)
The solution
Nutre MUAC is a user-oriented application to be used by health professionals to register cases, identify the level of malnutrition and offer treatment recommendations and type of sachet (Ready-to-Use Supplement) that should be given to treat each case. The App was designed to guide the user in a simple and intuitive way to register cases, mitigating filling errors.
The Application also register cases offline so that users can continue registering cases in more remote areas and synchronize the database as soon as there is an internet signal.
Check out the process
How it works:
Authorized users register the case through the App, entering patient data, the measured value of MUAC (Mid-upper arm circumference) and the symptoms presented. The App then analyzes the information provided and presents the level of malnutrition, instructions for treatment, adequate food supplement, date of the next visit, instructions for following up on the case and much more. Follow-up visits can be carried out in a few seconds.
The user has his own list of cases but also shares a list of all cases of his organization where he works, so he can visit cases where a colleague cannot, when for example a colleague is on vacation or sick. The App also enables case transfer between organizations.
Lots of information in little space
One of the App’s greatest merits is that it provides a lot of information and an overview of each case in little space. In the list of cases, each pixel was thought to add valuable information.
For each case, the App informs the patient’s name, Alert if any (such as transferred case, interrupted treatment, case referred to hospital etc), child’s age, picture, current MUAC value and malnutrition level, number of visits and date of next visit. Visits are displayed by colored dots that represent a level of malnutrition, which makes it easy to have a quick understanding of the progress of each case.
Powerful monitoring for supervisors
The supervisors of each organization have access to all the cases handled by their organization, in addition to having a dashboard that informs the number of cases and indicators under their responsibility. There are several levels of users and permissions, such as organization, state, regional and national level.
Supervisors can also filter cases by a specific type of malnutrition, alert or search for a specific case, where they can obtain details of a patient’s personal and contact information, data of the user who treated him, history of visits and treatment performed, eating habits and much more.
Check the App!
Please note that the app is restricted to use by healthcare professionals in the Dominican Republic and requires verification codes to register.
