Cedars-Sinai is developing California's first mobile lung cancer screening unit. The mobile unit will make numerous stops all across the city, expanding access to lung cancer screening for high risk individuals (as defined by the USPSTF.) We were tasked with creating a comprehensive community-based campaign and mobile solution to accompany the screening unit, to be rolled out in Los Angeles and Orange Counties in 2025.
Socioeconomic Inequities- Barriers that are more common in underserved communities limits real-world access to Lung Cancer Screening and subsequent treatment, even if the service technically exists.
Varying degrees of health literacy- Lack of trust in the medical community due to historic mistreatment, language barriers, and financial hardships overwhelmingly burden Asian-American, Hispanic, and Black-Caribbean populations in Los Angeles.
Thought provoking graphic campaign featuring invitations from loved ones asking if they will be attending future life milestones.
Highlights the importance of family support as a prime motivator for prioritizing lung cancer screening for high risk, commitment-hesitant individuals.
Invitation format posits the screening as a lower-pressure, family-motivated activity that does not detract from the often intimidation nature of the topic of personal health.
The Lung Cancer Navigator & Ally (LUNA) is a moniker used to the mobile lung cancer screening unit. LUNA adds a personable identity to the screening, making it less intimidating and easier to remember for passerby and patients.
Invitation format posits the screening as a lower-pressure, family-motivated activity that does not detract from the earnest, scary nature of the topic of personal health.
Highlights the importance of family support as a prime motivator for prioritizing lung cancer screening for high risk, commitment-hesitant individuals
Thought provoking graphic campaign featuring invitations from loved ones asking if they will be attending future life milestones
Rather than pressure potential patients to commit too quickly, the campaign is meant to increase lung cancer screening eligibility and discoverability directly from the campaign to an integrated mobile eligibility screener.
Rather than pressure potential patients to commit too quickly, the campaign is meant to increase lung cancer screening eligibility and discoverability.
Find LUNA in your neighborhood to get started with the screening process.
Following a personalized community clinic finder, track where the mobile screening unit is in your neighborhood to get started with the screening process.
- 10% increase in overall Lung Cancer Screening Rates compared to rates prior to campaign and mobile unit adoption
- At least 5% QR Code CTR from poster campaign discoverability to eligibility survey
- Rollout of mobile screening van and campaign by 2025 in City of Los Angeles
"...This campaign really nails our message. Sometimes it's not about throwing resources at people, but making sure these resources are accessible."
"'[This campaign] pinpoints why lung cancer screening can be so difficult for many communities in the area."
"This approach in community driven advocacy is just what we're looking for. Many services for older groups don't always consider external barriers, making help effectively unattainable."
"...This campaign really nails our message. Sometimes it's not about throwing resources at people, but making sure these resources are accessible."
"'[This campaign] pinpoints why lung cancer screening can be so difficult for many communities in the area."
"This approach in community driven advocacy is just what we're looking for. Many services for older groups don't always consider external barriers, making help effectively unattainable."
Understand the motivators that drive relationships between healthcare provider and patient (i.e. community, culture, language, and health literacy)
Empathize with the barriers and pain points experienced by underserved communities in LA with regards to healthcare accessibility impacting care received
Develop a strong advocacy campaign informed by research to increase Lung Cancer Eligibility & Screening rates in treatment resistant, high risk individuals
In order to determine potential touch-points, we mapped out the current state process of getting screened for lung cancer in the LA area. From there, we would analyze our site research and interview insights to develop a community-forward campaign for Cedars.
From secondary research and site clinics with community health providers in DTLA, we were able to synthesize various patient stories and insights into a series of behavioral archetypes that we would design for.
-More likely to suffer from degenerative vision concerns due to age and smoker's history.
-Privacy concerns in the healthcare/academic space meant that we mainly utilized WCAG accessibility guidelines
for contrast, size, and color, as well as internal usability testing and heuristic evaluations.
SoCal residents 50-80 years old who have a history of smoking at least 20 pack years (Eligibility requirements according to USPSTF.)
Particular focus on underserved communities (specifically Latinx, African American, LGBTQ+ and Korean populations) who are statistically less likely to schedule regular screenings.
SoCal residents 50-80 years old who have a history of smoking at least 20 pack years (Screening eligibility requirements according to USPSTF.)
-Particular focus on underserved communities (specifically Latinx, African American, LGBTQ+ and Korean populations) who are statistically less likely to schedule regular screenings.
Due to time constraints we distilled an MVP for our proof of concept mockups.
Highlighted below are the key functions of our screening aid, including the campaign-to-eligibility screening QR code,
the mobile screening van unit tracker, and the ability to view its scheduled stops.
-Reduce number of disappearing containers; visual consistency is less disorienting for those who are not as familiar with mobile applications and websites
-Utilize text-descriptive labels to increase comprehension
We decided to prioritize mobile website formatting compared to compelling users to download an app too early in the process (or at all.)
Increases likelihood of patient retention prior to first visit without turning alread-hesitant individuals away due to high commitment
Website-first design minimizes “step fatigue” prior to successfully booking
We decided to prioritize mobile website formatting compared to compelling users to download an app too early in the process (or at all.)
Increases likelihood of patient retention prior to first visit without turning alread-hesitant individuals away due to high commitment
Website-first design minimizes “step fatigue” prior to successfully booking
- Although hiding certain button options kept the interface "cleaner," it can potentially disorient less tech savvy users when navigating across different pages
Result
-Keep containers fixed when navigating across different pages
-Some containers cannot be fixed due to the functionality of the page, so we retained those for clarity.
- Reduce cognitive load and increase situational awareness to reduce chances of losing track
- Taller, wider CTA's to aid selection accuracy [ Minimum Height : 60px tall ]
- Helpful for dense, context heavy task flows such as eligibility surveys
This campaign is currently under development internally at Cedars, planned for rollout in 2025.
Given our time and resource constraints, we opted to develop simple proof-of-concept mockups and made reasonable assumptions about how Cedars team would plan to integrate this experience.
If I were to revisit this project, I would love to refine the visual system and flesh out the different stages of the mobile experience.
It was an incredibly rewarding experience working with the Cedars-Sinai team on such an impactful community project. We were able to directly collaborate with the organization's outreach directors as well as medical professionals to realize the full scope of what is a critical advocacy and awareness campaign at the forefront of accessible care in Los Angeles.
