Surgical Data Management UI & UX Case Study
A UX Journey to Streamline Surgical Documentation and Turn Surgical Records into Learning and Growth.
OVERVIEW
Prognos is a mobile-first digital platform designed to revolutionize how surgeons in India document, track, and analyze their surgical procedures. Moving beyond traditional paper-based records and fragmented digital systems, this application provides a centralized solution for surgical data management.
CONTEXT
Hospital records are safe from everyone, including the doctors who need them.
While Indian Medical Council regulations require hospitals to maintain surgical records for three years in standardized formats, the reality is more complex. Paper-based records exist but are often stored in physical archives, making them inaccessible when surgeons need them, to review histories, track surgical outcomes across multiple visits, or analyze their practice patterns for improvement.
TARGET AUDIENCE
Practicing surgeons across specialties in tier 1 and tier 2 Indian cities, working in both private hospitals and government healthcare facilities.
CURRENT SYSTEMS
Existing Data Management Systems in Healthcare
EMR SYSTEM
ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS
Solely owned by a particular health organization, be it a hospital, clinic or individual doctor, primarily recorded for internal use. It contains digital version of charts kept by organizations.
Hospital-facing systems are cumbersome to use, making data entry and retrieval difficult. Surgeons often lose access to their records when they change organizations.
USER BEHAVIOR INSIGHTS
Extreme Time Pressure in Surgical Workflows
Hospital-facing systems are cumbersome to use, making data entry and retrieval difficult. Surgeons often lose access to their records when they change organizations.
Source: The Hindu
EHR SYSTEM
ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS
Longitudinal collection of the health information of individual patients or populations, enabling care coordination across multiple providers. It includes key health data of patients.
EHR systems are designed for patient care across multiple providers and require complex interoperability infrastructure, making them resource-intensive for focused surgical documentation needs.
Understanding Surgeons’ Behavior
NEED FOR DOCUMENTATION
But why should documenting surgeries even matter to a surgeon?
This can be understood better by looking at patient registries.
Disease Registries
Benefits
Hospital records vary: private hospitals use digital, others paper needing formal requests.
Personal data crucial for research and outcome analysis.
Maintains data mainly for operative patients due to medico-legal needs.
Difference in data maintenance between institutional and small-scale clinics, with smaller centers relying on hard copies due to historical practices and a lack of tech-savvy team.
High Reliance on Smartphones for Surgeons
Hospital-facing systems are cumbersome to use, making data entry and retrieval difficult. Surgeons often lose access to their records when they change organizations.
Studies in various settings reported that most health care professionals use smartphones daily in their practice
Source: American College of Surgeons
Wants system like UK/Aus joint registries to study failures.
Patient records are kept, with hard copies being the predominant method of storage.
Maintaining personal files is seen as extremely beneficial for the learning and more development of the doctor.
PHR SYSTEM
PERSONAL HEALTH RECORDS
Patient-centred organisational system. A PHR is the same as EHR, but are meant to be owned, set up, and managed by patients.
PHR systems like ABHA are patient-controlled and designed to manage one’s own health data across all providers, whereas surgical documentation needs to be surgeon-controlled.
RELEVANT TO THEME
Procedure Registries
A hospital surgical registry collects data on patient outcomes following specific surgeries, allowing hospitals to improve surgical techniques.
A patient registry is an organized system that collects information about patients who share a specific condition, treatment, or experience. It is used to track outcomes, monitor disease patterns, support research, and inform clinical or policy decisions. There are mainly 3 types of registry:
Point-of-Care Registries
Previous patient-data app failed—too slow (5–10 min/patient).
Senior uses 1TB cloud, organized by limb/patient, with pre/post-op images, SLR photos, searchable with filters.
Disease-wise data tracking common in institutions, rare in private clinics.
Involvement in national cancer and TB registries requires notifying government health agencies of diagnosed cases for follow-up.
Patient diagnoses are maintained on hospital computers using a folder system for various tests like CT scans, ultrasounds, and X-rays.
75%
Respondents who want to Document Patient Progress because of Hospital Requirements.
Multi-Doctor Coordination in Surgical Procedure
Surgical procedures require coordination amongst surgeons. 72% of tensions were triggered by coordination problems; 21.2% by task-related problems.
Source: NCBI
Procedure registries are valuable tools for improving patient care through systematic outcome tracking. For surgeons, they also support professional development, benchmarking, and performance monitoring.
While most registries exist at a national level, introducing outcome tracking at a personal level could significantly enhance both surgical practice and patient care.
What doctors have to say about this:
INSIGHTS FROM USER INTERVIEWS
Orthopedics distinct—healing visible vs. other fields; favors specialty-specific apps.
Need objective tracking (esp. X-rays) for long-term outcomes; current personal storage (cloud, folders, manual) is "messy."
Tools are for personal use, not hospital EMRs.
Data is rarely needed for future reference at a small level, primarily serving as basic records, unlike multi-specialty hospitals or institutes.
Taking opinions from multiple doctors:
USER SURVEYS
Surveyed over 25 respondents who are doctors from India, consisting of a mix of surgical and non-surgical branches.
62%
Respondents want to Document Surgical Outcomes.
CONCLUSIONS
Key Takeaways from Research:
Documenting Procedures for Learning
Surgeons benefit from tracking procedures as it supports continuous learning, reflection, and improvement in clinical outcomes.
Time-Sensitive Workflows
Documentation tools must fit into limited consultation windows without disrupting existing clinical workflows.
Documentation Burden and Extra EMR Workload
The adoption of documentation through electronic medical records (EHR) has contributed to an increase in administrative workload. Mobile devices can enhance efficiency through fewer errors.
Source: OrthoInfo, STS National Database
With high smartphone adoption, mobile platforms offer the most practical, accessible solution for quick documentation.
Multi-Doctor Coordination
Collaborative features are essential as patient care often involves input from multiple specialists.
Suggested improvements: categorize by fields (trauma, joint replacement), demographics, injury-type prompts, and allow outcome notes.
Prefers term "procedure" over "surgery."
OPD cases need minimal records; private patients less willing to share detailed data.
Records are useful for patients who misplace reports or when higher centers request tissue slides for review. There's a limited timeframe for patients to claim slides after a biopsy.
Some senior colleagues use Excel sheets to record reports, diagnoses, and later updates, which serves as a valuable learning experience.
Long term for research and development
Systematic data collection creates valuable archives for research, evidence generation, and innovation in surgical practice.
Easy Addition and Retrieval
Seamless data entry and quick access to past cases are critical for adoption and usability.
75%
Respondents said they track these records through physical files maintained by hospitals.
Mobile-First Approach to Documentation
Defining the User and Flow
USER PERSONAS
VALUE PROPOSITION
Key Features of the Application
Team Coordination and Collaboration
Doctors can add team members and collaboratively edit patient records, ensuring multi-specialist input.
Availability of Surgical Analytics
Tracks outcomes, identifies trends, and supports research and professional growth over time.
This section focuses on the User Stories defined using User Personas, furthering to User Flows and User’s Journey.
Documenting Surgeries with a Few Clicks
Enables fast, structured recording of procedures without disrupting time-sensitive clinical workflows.
Easy Retrieval of Patient Data
Search and filters allow quick access to past cases for follow-ups, reviews, and learning.
Designed as a Mobile-First Application
Built for smartphones to support on-the-go documentation and case access anytime, anywhere.
USER FLOW
Detailed User Flows with Heuristics and Laws of UX Applied
Adding a New Case/New Patient’s Data:
