Case study of
EP Simulator
Filling the education gap for resident doctors in the first-of-its-kind e-learning platform for intensive training in electrophysiology (EP).
Background
Cardiology together with electrophysiology - its specialization examining the heart's electrical activity - make one of the fastest-growing fields of medicine in recent years. However, the digitization of medicine learning processes does not keep up with achievements in the scientific sphere.
Teaching resident physicians how to perform electrophysiology (EP) study has been identified by the medical circles as one of the most stressful activities. That’s because young electrophysiologists only had the opportunity to learn and use heart monitoring and examination tools in the clinical environment, not the learning one. Performed in the presence of an actual patient and other doctors who also needed to practice their skills, electrophysiologists were very often overwhelmed with the challenge. This made their EP training also highly inefficient.
A Polish-German medical network focusing on digitization of medicine, driven by two ambitious cardiac electrophysiologists: Jędrzej Kosiuk and Tomasz Jadczyk, saw the problem. Jędrzej Kosiuk and Tomasz Jadczyk together decided they wanted to change the learning process in medical educational facilities, starting with the EP training for cardiologists. They partnered with Targa to transform this concept into a purpose-driven digital product.
How we helped?
- Building from scratch the digital experience strategy of EP Simulator
- Developing visual and conceptual branding
- Preparing the website design and prototyping
- Incorporating elements of gamification
- Developing user interface design
- Developing the platform using Webflow
Project in a snapshot
- 4 weeks – from concept to the development of the self-study platform
- Client-first approach – creating seamless brand & product experience answering the challenges of medical professionals
- Learning Management System - Targa carefully planned and crafted the learning space to make it resonate with the target users and adjust all content formats to the digital landscape (e.g. structure of modules, topics lessons).
- Webflow – the “trump card” delivering unbelievable speed-to-market and unmatched flexibility. To offer EP Simulator community access to the gated online courses and subscription-based area with premium content, we implemented a new Webflow membership feature.
- Airtable - we knew that the EP Simulator team will gradually add new online courses so we selected a database tool that is powerful, but not overpowering. Now, they can add new content at their own discretion - fast and easy.
Key takeaways
1. Looking beyond the pain-points of the target group
To build the digital platform for EP training, we first dug deep into scientific data to understand the intricacies of electrophysiology and med-education, the challenges that resident-physicians are faced with and how we can provide solutions using our client-first approach. Since no one has ever created a digital self-study platform addressing such a complex medical procedure, we knew we entered uncharted waters and had to put a lot of effort into the discovery phase. By combining EP Simulator’s knowledge of needs and issues faced by doctors in the education process with our understanding of the digital landscape, we have created a transformation strategy and a roadmap for a new learning model.
In a series of intensive product discovery workshops, it became very clear that overcoming the pain-points of young electrophysiologists is not enough. We mapped the process of how resident physicians are learning to perform EP heart examination now and came to the conclusion that we can not only digitize, but also create a much more delightful and efficient learning process for young doctors.
2. Transforming and digitizing learning process
Together we decided that EP Simulator is set to completely alter the learning process of heart examination – from stressful and inefficient training in the clinical environment, where young electrophysiologists had to both study & practice at once in front of a patient – into the brand-new model. The digital model, where physicians can gradually delve into the complex topic of the EP study – practice abnormal heart cases with a virtual patient and maximal clinical realism. After such intensive training, performing the EP study with an actual patient will be an efficient experience for both sides. The efficiency of the model has been tested and scientifically proven. We knew that we could confidently launch our product to the market.
3. From concept to the market launch in 6 weeks
The task that the EP Simulator team set before us required full commitment to the rapid development of this digital product. EP Simulator platform needed to be fully operational within 6 weeks in order to present the solution during relevant medical conferences.
Thanks to the process we follow at Targa, we knew we could deliver the platform within such a short deadline. By developing the platform using low-code & no-code solutions such as Webflow, we shifted our emphasis towards in-depth discovery, strategy and branding workshops. Such an approach proved to be invaluable when working with an innovative concept, where no market benchmarks are available and you have to set the standard yourself.
EP Simulator and Targa teams working hand-in-hand, staying in constant communication throughout the process, were able to go through the entire project cycle during the set time – from discovery workshops, throughout the prototype, up to the design and development of the live solutions. MedRefer was ready to present the EP Simulator at medical scientific conferences, acquiring the first users.
4. Becoming the branding partner to EP Simulator
After crafting a number of personas and user scenarios, we came up with the customer journey and the low-fidelity prototype which needed branding. We laid the foundations of EP Simulator branding, both visually and conceptually, including the brand positioning, the content, the design.
Also, we integrated the advertising section into the EP Simulator learning platform in a way that offers enough visibility of advertising without compromising the educational character of the site.
In a very short time, we set marketing goals to bring awareness to the new teaching model of electrophysiologists, and systematically introduced them to the market. EP Simulator is now in its early stages of growth and Targa will continue to support the brand through data, technology and design.
