IMG

Having won the tender, our first job was to get ourselves to hospital and watch the IMG in action.

The question of usability is one we take very seriously. Many of our projects deal with secure data for time-poor users, often in fairly stressful environments and as part of specialist roles.

We knew that although some IMG users would be administering the same drug multiple times a day, and know it inside out, the system has to be robust enough for much less comfortable environments.

It could be used by a nurse who’s never worked on that ward before, by a nurse who might be less technically adept than other colleagues, or by a tired nurse, working as part of a crash team, under pressure at 5am.

And when you take into account that, if the NHS trust has subscribed to the IMG, every ward from A&E to urology, and from obstetrics and gynaecology to geriatric will need access to it, it has to be clear and easy enough to use in the most varied and tricky of situations.

So we took to St James’ Hospital in Leeds for deep user research, watching and talking to the nurses who were actually using it. It was an eye-opener, showing us first-hand the difficulties they face, from department to department. Challenges that will be replicated and multiplied in NHS trusts all over the country.

That process meant we were not only able to pinpoint numerous additional improvements, but also take our direct findings back to NHS leaders and prove the validity of our recommendations, as witnessed on the frontline.

Once we’d refined and agreed our approach, we spent around a year building the system. Then it was time to migrate the information from the old website to our new, more modern and usable format. And add thoughtful, user-friendly touches, such as printable posters with QR codes, for medics to attach to the medicine cupboard, providing easy mobile access to the IMG exactly when and where it’s needed.