CVS Specialty — Symptom Tracker

Helping Oncology Patients Understand and Report Treatment Side Effects

01 — Overview

CVS Specialty wanted to help newly diagnosed oncology patients manage the uncertainty surrounding treatment side effects and remain adherent to their medications.

Our team designed a digital symptom tracker that allowed patients to record symptoms, understand their severity, and determine when support from a Specialty Care Nurse might be needed. The experience complemented—not replaced—the relationship between patients and their oncologists by providing guidance between medical appointments.

Role: Senior UX Designer

Responsibilities: User research, competitive analysis, user flows, wireframing, prototyping, usability testing, and cross-functional collaborationTools: Sketch, InVision, Mural, Canvas, UserTesting.com, and Jira

02 — The Problem

Our working hypothesis was that 30–40% of newly diagnosed oncology patients did not adhere to their medications.

The initial discomfort associated with a new oncology prescription could cause patients to become concerned about their symptoms or stop taking their medication. Patients needed a reliable way to understand whether their experiences were expected, concerning, or serious enough to require professional support.

Designing the experience introduced several challenges:

• Patients already had expectations about how a symptom tracker should work.

• Clinical severity scales could not be changed without approval from the doctor-operated clinical board.

• Scales originally designed for pen-and-paper use needed to be translated into an accessible digital experience.

• The product needed to support patients who might be experiencing fatigue or cognitive impairment.

• The system needed to scale as additional symptoms were introduced.

  
  

03 — The Process

3.1 — Competitive Analysis

I reviewed more than 60 applications and websites described as symptom trackers.

I also completed a heuristic analysis of the primary competitors to evaluate their functionality, complexity, terminology, and approaches to reporting symptoms.

The review revealed significant variation in what products considered a “symptom tracker.” This reinforced the need to establish a clear mental model and carefully manage patients’ expectations.

3.2 — Patient Research

We created a research panel of newly diagnosed oncology patients and conducted two rounds of qualitative interviews with five participants in each round.

I also led four unmoderated usability-testing sessions to evaluate how participants interpreted symptoms, severity levels, response times, and communication with the care team.

Research revealed several important patterns:

• Participants valued the ability to report side effects and connect with a specialist.

• Patients wanted reassurance that what they were experiencing was normal.

• Ninety percent of participants expected a Specialty Care Nurse to respond within approximately one hour.

• Participants found visual references, including the Bristol Stool Chart, helpful when describing difficult or sensitive symptoms.

  
  

3.3 — Exploration and Collaboration

I partnered with the visual designer on three design-thinking exercises. We compared our approaches and combined the strongest elements into a shared direction.

Before advancing a solution, we reviewed concepts with the lead developer to confirm their feasibility within the existing technology.

Once an approach was approved, I created mobile and desktop wireframes and presented them during team-grooming sessions. Feedback from product, design, content, clinical, and development partners was incorporated before the designs moved forward.

3.4 — Designing the Experience

The symptom tracker needed to accommodate any number of symptoms while maintaining a consistent and understandable structure.

We designed the interface using an eight-point grid system and created reusable patterns that could scale as CVS Specialty introduced additional symptoms.

Initial symptom experiences included:

• Diarrhea.

• Fatigue.

• Pain.

The interaction model guided patients through reporting a symptom, identifying its severity using approved clinical scales, and understanding the appropriate next step.

3.5 — Working in Agile Sprints

Design and content remained at least one sprint ahead of development. This gave the team enough time to review requirements, test proposed solutions, incorporate feedback, and resolve technical issues before implementation.

The process also helped introduce a more genuinely agile way of working within an organization that had traditionally followed a waterfall methodology.

04 — The Solution

The final experience helped patients navigate the ambiguity surrounding treatment side effects.

Patients could:

• Record and monitor symptoms.

• Use clinically approved scales to describe symptom severity.

• Understand whether their experience might require additional attention.

• Communicate their symptoms more clearly to the care team.

• Request support from a Specialty Care Nurse.

• Feel more confident continuing their prescribed medication.

By translating complex clinical scales into a guided digital experience, the product made it easier for patients to communicate what they were experiencing without replacing professional medical guidance.

05 — The Impact

The symptom tracker helped reduce uncertainty for oncology patients during the early stages of treatment.

Key outcomes included:

• Ninety percent of tested users said the product helped manage their stress and reduced uncertainty about how their bodies were responding to treatment.

• The experience supported medication adherence and encouraged patients to continue to their next prescription refill.

• The project helped CVS Specialty avoid significant costs associated with medication nonadherence.

• Our team received a first-quarter award for its performance and agile approach.

• CVS Health’s Chief Digital Officer recognized the team’s work and its importance to patients.

  
  

06 — Reflection

This project reinforced the importance of balancing patient needs with clinical and technical constraints.

We could not simplify the experience by changing established clinical scales. Instead, we needed to make those scales easier to understand and use. Close collaboration with patients, clinicians, content specialists, visual design, and development helped us create an experience that remained clinically responsible while feeling more supportive and approachable.

Future opportunities included allowing patients to return to the tracker multiple times, adding open-text fields for self-reporting, and providing educational resources tailored to specific symptoms.