Services 1 — Design by Bogdan

Designing a Regimen Ordering & Management System

Overview

I was one of two UX researchers and designers on a team who led efforts to re-imagine the regimen ordering and management experience in a medical EHR, focusing on oncology treatment plans.
Our goal was to modernize the workflows clinicians use to build, order, and manage complex chemotherapy regimens including oral medications, IV fluids, supportive therapies, and monitoring protocols and integrate across both acute and ambulatory care.
This work spanned dictionary design, regimen ordering, regimen preview, editing, and post-order management, resulting in a more flexible, safer, and clinician-friendly system.
My Role

My Role: UX/UI Designer & UX Research
Core Team: Product Owner, Clinical Analysts, Developers, Designers.
Collaborators: Pharmacists, Oncologists, Regimen Builders, Nurses, Patient navigators, and more.
Project Timeline: Ongoing multi year project.
My Contributions:
Led foundational research and stakeholder engagement
Created UI/UX flows and high-fidelity prototypes
Facilitated internal validation and usability feedback studies
Developed frameworks for integrating complex med types like IV fluids
Why This Project

Oncology treatment requires highly structured, multi-day medication plans
Existing tools were rigid, unclear, and couldn’t accommodate all medication types
Clinicians often relied on workarounds or manual edits, increasing risk
Fragmentation between dictionary build, ordering, and management added cognitive burden and inefficiencies
Who Was Affected
Regimen builders (pharmacists, analysts)
Ordering providers (oncologists, nurses)
Support staff reviewing treatment protocols
Internal dev teams needing clearer UX/UI patterns
Project Stages

We structured the project into 6 major functional areas, each with their own research, design, and testing focus.
1. Foundational Research (Before Design Work Began)
2. Regimen Dictionary Build (Setup of Meds, Fluids, Strings)
3. Regimen Preview (Timeline View Before Ordering)
4. Regimen Ordering Experience (During Encounter)
5. Regimen Editing (Live Updates to Orders)
6. Manage Regimens View (Ongoing Monitoring & Changes)

Phase 1: Foundational Research

Goals:
Understand gaps in the existing regimen experience
Identify pain points across different user types
Align cross-team efforts between medication ordering and regimen planning
Methods:
Stakeholder interviews with pharmacists, oncologists, developers
Workflow audits of current ordering processes
Gap analysis between regimen and standalone medication workflows
Key Findings:
Complexities around dose calculations (weight/BSA, day-specific logic)
Lack of flexibility for different med types (fluids, injections, oral meds)
Limited preview functionality made it hard to catch errors before ordering
Regimens weren’t always editable in meaningful ways post-order
Phase 2: Regimen Dictionary Build

Focus:
How regimens are constructed using medication and IV fluid components
UX Goals:
Simplify the creation of reusable strings (IV fluids, hydration, premeds)
Allow for volume-based dosing logic
Improve data entry and clarity for multi-day, multi-agent protocols
Design Contributions:
Built string builder UI concepts for hydration, anti-emetics, and chemo
Defined behaviors for reusable strings with day-specific variations
Introduced support for mL/kg and additive-based IV fluid volumes
Visual editing tools for seeing how strings appear across regimens
Phase 3: Regimen Preview (Before Ordering)

Focus:
Provide a clear, scroll-able view of full regimen structure before ordering
UX Goals:
Support safe review of all agents, IV fluids, and supportive meds
Present a discreet cycle view that aligns with clinical expectations to help providers order the correct regimen
Design Contributions:
Designed Gantt-style timeline view showing list of drugs for cycles
Sticky first column showing each regimen component
Added all required fields and details that could possibly be added into a collapsible region to help cater to multiple users without sacrificing usability.
Phase 4: Regimen Ordering Experience

Focus:
What the ordering provider sees and interacts with during patient treatment
UX Goals:
Simplify complex interactions (e.g., editing doses by day)
Allow flexible adjustments while preserving original regimen intent
Ensure real-time validation and safety checks
Design Contributions:
Built interactive mock ups for editing doses, selecting pre-built regimens
Added UI patterns for:
BSA recalculation
Dose adjustment
On-the-fly substitution of equivalent fluids or supportive meds
Developed a "summary before submit" screen with high visibility of timing, doses, and alerts
Phase 5: Regimen Editing (Post-Ordering)

Focus:
Support flexible regimen changes due to patient response or scheduling shifts
UX Goals:
Allow clinicians to make safe, trackable edits without restarting the regimen
Provide clear versioning and auditability
Design Contributions:
Designed editing flows to allow day-level changes to meds or fluids
UI patterns for “edit this cycle only” vs “apply to all future cycles”
Maintained alignment with downstream administration logic
Phase 6: Manage Regimens View (Ongoing Management)

Focus:
Centralized view of all active regimens for a patient or population
UX Goals:
Provide summary and detailed views of active/paused/completed regimens
Enable clinicians to monitor progress, review dosing history, and make adjustments
Design Contributions:
Designed Manage Regimens dashboard with filtering, search, and highlight of today’s activity
Integrated click-throughs into dose detail, schedule change, and med history
Added support for flags like “needs attention” or “off protocol”
Outcomes & Impact

Defined an end-to-end regimen ordering experience with consistent UI/UX across all stages
Enabled support for IV fluid dosing by weight and additives — previously unsupported
Delivered timeline-based preview that aligned with oncologists' real-world mental models
Reduced ordering errors and manual edits by clarifying regimen setup
Established reusable component library to speed future enhancements
Reflection & Lessons Learned

Clinical workflows require flexible UX patterns that prioritize clarity over minimalism
Deep inter team and groups collaboration is critical when designing for oncology or any complex domain
Dictionary structure and real-time system constraints must be considered early in design
Next Steps (Future Roadmap)

Expand support for oral-only regimens or non-chemo protocols
Introduce templating tools for providers to build regimens on-the-fly
Run usability studies with ordering providers on live systems
Extend regimen timeline view to nurse administration and MAR use cases