Accelerating precision medicine for children with cancer
children's cancer institute
Drove digital transformation and design for Australia's first clinical-grade paediatric oncology data platform, transforming 96-hour manual workflows into 6.5-hour AI-powered precision reports.
Drove digital transformation and design for Australia's first clinical-grade paediatric oncology data platform, transforming 96-hour manual workflows into 6.5-hour AI-powered precision reports.
only represents design excellence, but it also surpasses the criteria for design innovation and design impact”
“To be recognised with an Australian Good Design Award tells the world this project not only represents design excellence, but it also surpasses the criteria for design innovation and design impact”
“To be recognised with an Australian Good Design Award tells the world this project not
Dr Brandon Gien / Founder of Good Design Australia, Chair of the Good Design Awards & Executive Director of the Australian Design Council
Dr Brandon Gien / Founder of Good Design Australia, Chair of the Good Design Awards & Executive Director of the Australian Design Council
Children’s Cancer Institute (CCI) holds a unique position as Australia's sole independent medical research organization dedicated entirely to paediatric oncology. Through their partnership with The Kids' Cancer Centre at Sydney Children's Hospital – a leading clinical oncology unit – the teams leverage cutting-edge genomic sequencing to create precision molecular profiles of pediatric tumors.
Children’s Cancer Institute (CCI) holds a unique position as Australia's sole independent medical research organization dedicated entirely to paediatric oncology. Through their partnership with The Kids' Cancer Centre at Sydney Children's Hospital – a leading clinical oncology unit – the teams leverage cutting-edge genomic sequencing to create precision molecular profiles of pediatric tumors.
Children’s Cancer Institute (CCI) holds a unique position as Australia's sole independent medical research organization dedicated entirely to paediatric oncology. Through their partnership with The Kids' Cancer Centre at Sydney Children's Hospital – a leading clinical oncology unit – the teams leverage cutting-edge genomic sequencing to create precision molecular profiles of pediatric tumors.
Serendipity in action: the blossoming moment that aligned our paths🌻
As Australia's only independent paediatric cancer research institute, CCI faced a critical scaling challenge with their ZERO precision medicine program. They found that none of the commercially available platforms were sophisticated enough to handle ZERO's complex cancer genome dataset. After evaluating a few conceptual solutions that fell short of their requirements, they crossed paths with We Discover, a design thinking agency, and serendipitously I had just joined their team at that very moment.
Critical problem space
While their advanced diagnostic capability represented groundbreaking science, operational bottlenecks emerged in translating data into clinical decisions.
Objective
Reduce the inefficiencies and complexities scientists and clinicians face while manually interpreting and analysing complex genomic data, to scale up enrolment of children with cancer in the program while ensuring faster and safer outcomes
Outcome
The digital transformation and ZeroDash streamlined the data matching, interpretation, and reporting system, significantly reducing hands-on analysis time by 70% (from 22 hours to 6.5 hours)
0 → 1
Lead Product and Service Designer
🧠 Brain power
💡 Problem solving
🌻 Creative alchemy
🤸♀️ Curios proactiveness
🤝 Co-design
🧠 Brain power
💡 Problem solving
🌻 Creative alchemy
🤸♀️ Curios proactiveness
🤝 Co-design
Reduction in hand-on analysis time (from 22 hrs to 6.5 hrs)
Increased efficient over the first year of monitoring and data collection
scaled from a subset of high-risk patients to all children diagnosed with cancer in Australia annualy.
annual research capacity unlocked via re-design and automation
Critical problem space:
Challenge of battling time
Critical problem space: Challenge of battling time
Expanding the ZERO program to cover all ~1000 children newly diagnosed with cancer each year presented a daunting challenge
While their advanced diagnostic capability represented groundbreaking science, operational bottlenecks emerged in translating data into clinical decisions.
96-hour manual analysis workflows by scientists and clinicians to curate the vast amount of data for each patient
Data complexity: jumping between 20+ disparate databases and tools.
Scalability barrier and capped enrolment at 12% of eligible patients due to labor-intensive processes.
Vulnerable to human errors, with much of it relying on excel sheets and manual copying between tools and medical repositories.
Approach & process
To address this, the process needed to be streamlined and made more efficient and reproducible, with reduced turnaround times and costs. By optimising the data interpretation challenge, ZERO can make the benefits of precision medicine accessible to more children, leading to earlier diagnoses and more personalised treatments.
Meaningful products are never designed in siloes
Meaningful products are never designed in siloes
Co-design has been the gem to creating flexible and robust strategy grounded in research and data
siloes are like an echo lost in the desert
one-off workshops, yield small gains, but miss vital perspectives and pains
co-design, as ongoing process, fosters inclusion, change and long-term impact
co-design, as ongoing process, fosters inclusion, change and long-term impact
As the Lead Designer, establish strong co-design practices between all parties involved bringing people along the journey, was my mission number one.
Conducted field studies and moderated interviews involving data scientists, curation scientists, clinician scientists, and stakeholders to get broad understanding of process and pain points
Conducted field studies and moderated interviews involving data scientists, curation scientists, clinician scientists, and stakeholders to get broad understanding of process and pain points
Conducted field studies and moderated interviews involving data scientists, curation scientists, clinician scientists, and stakeholders to get broad understanding of process and pain points
Facilitated workshops session to brainstorm solutions, define objectives, frame the platform's vision, and establish goals
Facilitated workshops session to brainstorm solutions, define objectives, frame the platform's vision, and establish goals
Facilitated workshops session to brainstorm solutions, define objectives, frame the platform's vision, and establish goals
Implemented co-design methodologies throughout the project lifecycle, establishing continues feedback loops and co-creation sessions with stakeholders and the team
Implemented co-design methodologies throughout the project lifecycle, establishing continues feedback loops and co-creation sessions with stakeholders and the team
Implemented co-design methodologies throughout the project lifecycle, establishing continues feedback loops and co-creation sessions with stakeholders and the team
Actively involved end-users, stakeholders, and cross-functional teams to co-design a solution that authentically addressed user needs, behaviours and mental models
Actively involved end-users, stakeholders, and cross-functional teams to co-design a solution that authentically addressed user needs, behaviours and mental models
Actively involved end-users, stakeholders, and cross-functional teams to co-design a solution that authentically addressed user needs, behaviours and mental models
Armed with these insights, we uncovered opportunities for streamlining and enhancing efficiency informing our product roadmap
In our ongoing co-design sessions, we quickly recognised that innovation transcends conventional processes. Tailoring our approach to our team's dynamic nature proved pivotal, enabling us to blend UX and Agile methodologies, adeptly navigating the continuous streams of discovery, design, development, and deployment, embracing a fluid and collaborative journey.
An "aha" takeaway for me was uncovering the effectiveness of seamlessly shifting between a systemic view and delving deep into specific challenges, which sparked my passion for systems thinking and change.
This dynamic approach empowered me to conduct more holistic sessions with the team, facilitating a comprehensive understanding of both the broader landscape and intricate details
Simplifying the complex
Iteratively we designed customised and globally unique solution, centralising cancer genomic data to increase accuracy of findings
The new system is secure, scalable and centred around enhancing human experience during curation analysis, allowing for the seamless integration of dozens of diverse data sources
The new system is secure, scalable and centred around enhancing human experience during curation analysis, allowing for the seamless integration of dozens of diverse data sources
The new system is secure, scalable and centred around enhancing human experience during curation analysis, allowing for the seamless integration of dozens of diverse data sources
The data curation and interpretation have been streamlined, with reporting efficiency and turnaround times improving by over 50%. The manual efforts are reduced by the implementation of automation and machine learning for recording and flagging data
The data curation and interpretation have been streamlined, with reporting efficiency and turnaround times improving by over 50%. The manual efforts are reduced by the implementation of automation and machine learning for recording and flagging data
The data curation and interpretation have been streamlined, with reporting efficiency and turnaround times improving by over 50%. The manual efforts are reduced by the implementation of automation and machine learning for recording and flagging data
Helping interpret and identify molecular changes that can be targeted for treatment recommendation
Helping interpret and identify molecular changes that can be targeted for treatment recommendation
With the power of co-design and empathy we launched a globally unique solution that met ZERO's design specifications for analysing and visualising cancer genome data 🧬
Some of ZeroDash's key features to start with:
👉 Integrating internal and external sources to systematically evaluate and prioritise mutations, resulting in an improved accuracy
👉 Data visualisation allows quick identification of patterns, outliers and relationships within the data sets
Fit-for-purpose future proof solution designed to scale reaching
151,000
newly diagnosed adults in Australia
Opened the program for all children with cancer within 18 months
8 x more patients enrolled with only 25% increase in personnel
👉 Reduced risk profile by minimising human error, due to a higher degree of automation, resulting in more reliable and robust reporting
👉 The solution democratises precision medicine by enabling others to benefit from CCIA & ZERO's comprehensive genomic testing approach.
👉 70% reduction in hand-on analysis time (from 22 hrs to 6.5 hrs) enabling more accurate and higher volume samples to be analysed
👉 ZeroDash's long-term potential extends to addressing healthcare disparities in developing countries allowing to maximise their very limited healthcare personnel to realise the benefits of precision medicine
Takeaways
In healthcare every decision has impact
the precision we put into design decisions needed to mirror the precision needed in interpreting genomic data
Personal growth leading a small team
learning to let go of perfectionism at the right times was very humbling, as it helped us move forward. Sometimes we can get bogged into pixel perfection which ultimately can lead to burn out due to overwhelm or distract us from the overarching strategy and business objecting. Co-designing is so immensely important especially when every decision we make impacts real life on a death-life scale
Impact is never designed alone
the project started during the lockdown and at the time I didn’t encounter the concept of co-design. With the challenges complete new way of working imposed, as the lead I was a bit nervous how to ensure the project delivers true impact, so my strategy was to establish more intense collaboration with the stakeholders, including scientist, clinicians and geneticists actively bringing them along the day on.
Facilitation became my second nature and quickly learned that
co-designing is so immensely important especially when every decision we make impacts real life on a death-life scale. Ever since i’ve been an advocate for comprehensive co-design methodologies.
ZeroDash has allowed us to overcome a major data interpretation bottleneck. When we first met We Discover, we had a goal to halve the amount of time it takes to analyse and interpret the complex genomic data generated for each child enrolled on ZERO. Through the creation of ZeroDash, we have now achieved that, with a median 3.5-week turnaround from patient biopsy to receiving a personalised molecular report
Associate Professor Mark Cowley
Director, Computational Biology @Children's Cancer Institute
ZeroDash has allowed us to overcome a major data interpretation bottleneck. When we first met We Discover, we had a goal to halve the amount of time it takes to analyse and interpret the complex genomic data generated for each child enrolled on ZERO. Through the creation of ZeroDash, we have now achieved that, with a median 3.5-week turnaround from patient biopsy to receiving a personalised molecular report
Associate Professor Mark Cowley
Director, Computational Biology @Children's Cancer Institute
ZeroDash has allowed us to overcome a major data interpretation bottleneck. When we first met We Discover, we had a goal to halve the amount of time it takes to analyse and interpret the complex genomic data generated for each child enrolled on ZERO. Through the creation of ZeroDash, we have now achieved that, with a median 3.5-week turnaround from patient biopsy to receiving a personalised molecular report
Associate Professor Mark Cowley
Director, Computational Biology @Children's Cancer Institute
Let's create
impact together
autotelic
designer and researcher
enhancing your impact,
every step of the way.
ⓒ all rights reserved by Stefi Peykova 2024
Let's create
impact together
autotelic
designer and researcher
enhancing your impact,
every step of the way.
ⓒ all rights reserved by Stefi Peykova 2024
Let's create
impact together
autotelic
designer and researcher
enhancing your impact,
every step of the way.
ⓒ all rights reserved by Stefi Peykova 2024
Let's create
impact together
autotelic
designer and researcher
enhancing your impact,
every step of the way.
ⓒ all rights reserved by Stefi Peykova 2024
Let's create
impact together
autotelic
designer and researcher
enhancing your impact,
every step of the way.
ⓒ all rights reserved by Stefi Peykova 2024
