Leveraging human centered design to enhance clinician communication during pregnancy care: Overcoming language barriers with Spanish-speaking patients

Abstract

Background

Engaging patients in quality improvement and innovation projects is increasingly important, yet challenges persist with involving patients who speak languages other than English. This article presents design activities our team used to engage Spanish-speaking patients and cultural brokers.

Objective

To develop a clinician communication tool to enhance patient trust in pregnancy care clinicians, especially among minoritized populations who face language and cultural barriers, using human-centered design (HCD).

Patient involvement and innovation

We centered end-user experiences, including clinicians, Spanish-speaking patients, and Spanish-speaking cultural brokers, in our design process through multiple feedback sessions and modalities.

Methods

We used a HCD process to understand the problem, co-design a tool, and prepare for testing of a clinician tool. Design activities included a critical literature review, user interviews, design principles, solution sketching, rapid cycle feedback with subject matter experts, and field experience with pregnancy clinicians.

Results

We innovated on a widely used clinical communication tool, the Four Habits Model, and developed the Five Habits for Pregnancy Care to support pregnancy care clinicians in building trust by bridging cultural and language differences. We added an equity-focused habit “Pause and Reflect” to bookend the Four Habits. We refined the tool to meet different needs across pregnancy care visits based on feedback from 7 clinicians.

Discussion

We applied equity principles in a HCD process to understand a problem, co-design a tool, and prepare for testing by engaging with patients and cultural brokers in Spanish. Balancing the differing approaches for designers and researchers yielded important insights for enhancing equitable processes and outcomes in healthcare improvement.

Practical value

Communication tools designed with and for minoritized populations are critical for improving trust in all patient-clinician dyads during pregnancy care.