My1Health: Medical Tourism Intake Redesign

Role: Product Designer & UX/UI Specialist: strategy, interaction design, accessibility audit, prototyping and testing
Tools: Figma, Gemini AI, ChatGPT, Lyssna, WebAIM contrast checker
Users: Medical Tourism Officers, country managers, clients, and overseas partner hospital desks
Timeline: 9 weeks

I redesigned the client intake flow and officer dashboard for a medical tourism platform where 70% of potential patients dropped out during signup and document collection. I also audited the platform against WCAG 2.2 AA and built accessibility fixes into the design.

My1Health connects patients travelling abroad for medical treatment with partner hospitals overseas. In the platform, and in this case study, they're called clients.

The internal tool, Referral Partner Network System (RPNS), that managed this process relied on manual typing and put every case through identical steps. Medical Tourism Officers (MTOs), who each manage 2 to 5 cases a month, worked in dense, error-prone screens.

Impact

6 features added straight to the product roadmap
78% projected cut in manual data entry from the Secure Vault Bridge, driven by optical character recognition (OCR)
3.3:1 → 7.23:1 brand teal contrast lifted from failing to WCAG AAA, with a 48px minimum for tap targets

Challenge

The client intake flow was slow and manual. Officers typed every detail by hand from emailed documents, medical records came in late and left referrals stalled, and there was no fast way to find the right partner hospital for each client. The brief was to redesign the flow so the right information arrives earlier, takes less effort to capture, and leads officers to the right hospital sooner.

The design had to serve two audiences with different needs. International clients need low-effort, reassuring steps. Officers need speed at volume.

How might we give officers the speed they need at volume, while making each step feel simple and reassuring for international clients?

Objective

Cut the manual data entry officers do for every referral.
Get medical documents in and checked early, so fewer referrals stall.
Help officers find the right partner hospital for each client, fast.
Keep every step simple, reassuring and accessible for international clients.

AI-generated image of an officer seen from behind, hair in a bun, sitting at a desk with the old My1Health dashboard on a large monitor: performance cards, a certification progress banner, quick actions and an activity feed. — The starting point: the old dashboard officers worked from.

Researching the problem space

To understand where intake broke down, I combined four sources: the CEO's view of the business, an expert review of the existing platform, usage data, and testing with real users. Together they pointed to the same pressure point: document collection, where 70% of referrals dropped off, and the gap between the secure system and the WhatsApp conversations partners actually rely on.

Methods used

CEO interview: a semi-structured, recorded session with founder and CEO Ryan Marincowitz.
Heuristic evaluation and WCAG 2.2 AA audit: a structured usability and accessibility review of the existing platform.
Analytics review: traffic and drop-off data, plus a WebAIM contrast check of the brand colours.
Usability testing: one remote test on Lyssna with 13 recruited participants, using a wireframe prototype, before moving to high-fidelity design.

Five friction points from the CEO interview

Missing or outdated patient records.
A 70% drop-off during document collection.
Passport and medical record names that don't match, which cause travel delays.
Visa deposits that create major barriers for clients in some destinations.
Referral partners with varying technical confidence, many of whom prefer WhatsApp to the system.

The WhatsApp preference shaped the design. The solution had to link the secure system to the messaging channels people already use.

The full heuristic evaluation and WCAG 2.2 AA audit are in the Appendix.

Building user empathy

Four groups depend on the referral system, each with different stakes, from officers handling 2 to 5 cases a month to overseas hospital teams reviewing patient files. Walking through the legacy journey from their side showed why clients dropped out: every document was requested in one go, at the very end, after the officer had already built the profile by hand.

Four groups rely on the system

Medical Tourism Officers (MTOs): manage 2 to 5 cases a month.
Country managers: monitor bookings and travel-corridor trends.
Clients: patients moving through the referral journey.
Partner desks: overseas hospital teams reviewing patient files.

How the legacy journey worked

Document collection sat at the end of the process. An officer built a profile by hand, then asked the client for passport and medical scans in one large request. That's the point where clients dropped out.

That pointed to one direction: capture the hardest data first (identity and documents) using automation, then let the system handle routing and prioritisation.

Proto-persona card: Farhana Rahman, Medical Tourism Officer, Dhaka. Her goals, frustrations and needs are listed in the text version below. — Proto-persona of a Medical Tourism Officer, based on the founder interview.

Legacy referral journey map across five stages: choose a service, countries and hospital, client details, attachments, and submitted. The officer's feeling drops from neutral to its lowest point at attachments. The full map is in the text version below. — The legacy referral journey, mapped from the old booking screens.

Design & Prototype

The research set four principles, which guided every design decision. Ideas started as notebook sketches, became quick wireframes and a mapped referral flow, and then a wireframe prototype was tested with 13 participants on Lyssna.

Four design principles

Streamline: Cut visual clutter, use plain-language labels, increase tap targets to a 48px minimum.
Localise: Auto-match clients to hospitals using travel corridors, proximity and visa timelines.
Automate: Move OCR document capture to the start of the flow to remove manual entry immediately.
Customise: Route routine and urgent cases through different, prioritised workflows.

Start on paper

Handwritten notebook page listing dashboard sections and suggested actions for officers. — Notes on dashboard sections and officer actions.

Notebook sketches of a multi-step form with notes on conditional logic. — Multi-step form and conditional logic.

Notebook sketches of dashboard and form layouts. — Dashboard and form layouts.

Notebook sketch of a review and submit screen. — The review and submit screen.

Wireframe, then test

The wireframe prototype tested on Lyssna, screen by screen: one referral, from an empty dashboard to a submitted booking.

1. The starting point: an empty dashboard, with Quick Actions and a Refer New Client button.

Wireframe: the dashboard with the side menu open, listing Home, Trip management, Critical arrivals and logistics, Trip coordination, and Partner desk, each with sub-items. — 2. The menu groups trip management, trip coordination and the partner desk.

Wireframe: Step 1 Client Details with a Select assigned client dialog showing Hamilton, Lewis selected, and Cancel and Fetch details buttons. — 3. Step 1: Fetch details pulls up a client a Country Manager has already added and assigned to this officer, ready to complete.

Wireframe: Step 1 Client Details with first name, last name, gender, nationality, date of birth and treatment category already filled in for Lewis Hamilton. — 4. The client's details fill in automatically once fetched.

Wireframe: the rest of Step 1 with the preferred treatment date and language support filled in, a health and wellness concerns field, and a Save and Continue button. — 5. The officer adds the treatment date and language support, then saves and continues.

Wireframe: Step 2 Client Documents for Lewis Hamilton, with Send SMS requests to Client selected and a phone number, an Upload documents myself option, and Back and Send SMS and continue buttons. — 6. Step 2: send the client an SMS request for their documents, or upload them yourself.

Wireframe: a green SMS Successfully sent to client banner above Step 3 Appointment Details, with four service options and Back and Save and continue buttons. — 7. Step 3: the SMS is confirmed as sent, then the officer chooses the service the client needs.

Wireframe: Step 4 Clinical Treatment with country of residence England, preferred country Thailand, and two trusted partner hospitals, Bumrungrad International Hospital and Vejthani Hospital. — 8. Step 4: the leading partner hospitals for the chosen country and service.

Wireframe: a Booking request submitted dialog with a check mark, a note that the dedicated coordinator will be in touch, and an OK button. — 9. Booking request submitted, with a note that the dedicated coordinator will be in touch.

Wireframe: the dashboard All Clients table now listing Hamilton, Lewis first, with arrival date, assigned facility, current phase and destination, above four other clients. — **10.** Back on the dashboard, the new client appears in the All Clients table.

Test & Iterate

What testing showed

In a remote test on Lyssna, 13 participants used the wireframe prototype to refer a new client and complete the client's details. Five completed the task without difficulty; the main friction came before people reached the form.

The biggest issues:

Starting a referral: six participants couldn't find or start a new referral.
New versus existing clients: pre-populated data looked like an incomplete referral, so the correct starting point was unclear.
Visual hierarchy: required fields weren't clearly distinguished from optional ones.

What was changed:

Kept the main navigation permanently visible rather than collapsible.
Made New Referral a clear, persistent primary action.
Created a distinct empty state for new referrals.
Strengthened required-field indicators so mandatory information is clear upfront.

The Solution

A guided four-step intake flow: client details, medical documents, service type and location, and review and submit. Each step removes a task that officers used to do by hand, or moves it to the client through a channel they already use.

Step three runs on the RPNS location-matching engine, which ranks best-fit partner hospitals for each client. I conceptualised the engine as well as designing its interface.

Step 1: Client details

Client details step of the redesigned flow. Tabs for Search for client, Fetch my client and Import client passport sit above a form with first name, last name, gender, nationality, date of birth, treatment category and companion fields. — The Fetch my client tab catches anyone a Country Manager has already added, so the assigned Medical Tourism Officer can complete their details instead of starting again. It populates the form below it.

Step 2: Medical documents

Medical documents step with two options: send an SMS upload request to the client, or upload client medical documents. — Choose to send an SMS request or upload documents.

SMS Preview modal showing the automated message with a secure upload link, an Edit message button, a phone number field and a Send SMS button. — The SMS preview modal, with an editable default message.

Step 3: Service type and location

Service type step with four service options, a routine or urgent care choice with a priority notice, and a companion question. — Service type, urgency and companion.

Location step with home country England and preferred treatment country Turkey, listing two recommended partner hospitals. — The RPNS location-matching interface.

Step 4: Review and submit

Review and submit step with three summary blocks, each with an Edit button, and a verification toggle about passport validity. — Independently editable blocks.

Dashboard

The redesigned desktop dashboard: a sidebar of trip management, coordination and partner desk links, quick actions, and a table of five clients with phases such as intake, ready to book and clinical review. — The redesigned dashboard on desktop.

The officer's journey, redesigned

Walking the same Medical Tourism Officer through the new flow shows what changed. In the legacy journey, her confidence fell with every step and hit its lowest point at documents, the step where 70% of patients dropped off. Now documents come first, details fill themselves in, and the dashboard tells her where each case stands, so her confidence rises instead.

Improved referral journey map across five stages: find the client, medical documents, service and hospital, review and submit, and track the case. The officer's feeling rises from confident to reassured, shown against the faded legacy curve that fell to its lowest point at documents. The full map is in the text version below. — The improved journey, with the legacy feeling curve shown faintly behind it.

Read the improved journey as text

1. Find the client

Doing: searches, fetches or imports the passport. Thinking: “It's already filled in.” Feeling: confident. Before: every detail typed by hand from emailed PDFs. Now: details auto-filled by the OCR-driven Secure Vault Bridge.

2. Medical documents

Doing: texts the client a secure upload link. Thinking: “They can send it from their phone.” Feeling: relieved. Before: documents asked for last, the step where 70% dropped off. Now: documents come first, checked for validity by OCR.

3. Service and hospital

Doing: sets service and urgency, sees ranked hospitals. Thinking: “That one's the best fit.” Feeling: sure. Before: hospitals listed by name only. Now: best-fit hospitals ranked by the RPNS matching engine.

4. Review and submit

Doing: checks each block, edits in place. Thinking: “I can fix that without starting again.” Feeling: in control. Before: only Back buttons to fix a mistake. Now: edit buttons per block, and passport validity confirmed.

5. Track the case

Doing: follows the case on the dashboard. Thinking: “I can see where every case is.” Feeling: reassured. Before: no updates; she had to log in and check. Now: New, Stalled and Urgent filters, plus a 48-hour stall alert.

Project Reflection

In nine weeks, the project moved My1Health's intake from manual typing and stalled documents towards a guided flow that collects documents first and matches each client to the right hospital. The redesign earned a place on the product roadmap, and showed me how much the logic behind the screens shapes how well they work.

Outcome

Ryan Marincowitz reviewed the work and put six features directly onto My1Health's product roadmap:

The RPNS location-matching logic
Predictive stall-state alerts
The OCR-driven Secure Vault Bridge
'Fetch My Client' functionality
Three-path personalisation (generalist, urgent and concierge)
An accessibility audit baseline

He described the RPNS matching logic as the most ambitious conceptual design thinking he had seen.

What I learned

Mapping the backend logic alongside the interface mattered most. A well-designed form doesn't help if the routing rules behind it are flawed. Designing the RPNS matching rules and OCR triggers in tandem with the screens meant the tool changed how work gets routed, not just how it looks.

Presenting the work taught me a second lesson. Ryan's feedback was that setting out the WCAG AA and AAA recommendations first, before building them into the high-fidelity designs, was a more effective way to show the accessibility concerns: stakeholders could see each issue, and the options for fixing it, before any design was committed.

Reference

Appendix

Supporting detail for the case study above, in the order the work happened: the research documents, the legacy journey, the audit, the logic behind the screens, sketches, each intake step in depth, and the accessibility work.

Research documents

The documents behind the research: the team's interview plan, the founder interview itself, and the follow-up questions it raised. They have been edited for publication: names of the student team, mentor and staff, and some of the client's commercial details, are removed.

Stakeholder interview questions

The team's final plan for the 90-minute founder interview, including the booking workflow questions I asked.

Go to page

Page 1 of 4

Stakeholder Interview Questions

Title page: the two use cases, the 90-minute plan by section, and Part 1: Introduction and background.

Read the text version

The team’s final interview plan for the founder interview

Edited for publication. Team members’ names are replaced with roles, and the working drafts that followed this plan aren’t included.

Use case 1: Partner onboarding (five students)
Use case 2: Booking workflow (five students, including me)
Duration: 90 minutes, 30 questions

Time	Section and focus
15 min	Part 1: Introduction and background. Origins, market activity and user profiles (questions 1–5).
20 min	Part 2: New partner onboarding (UC1). Registration journey, documentation and technical barriers (questions 6–13).
45 min	Part 3: Booking workflow (UC2), my team. End-to-end case management, hospital coordination and automation needs (questions 14–29).
10 min	Part 4: Platform adoption, trust and support. Discovery, motivations and overall system value (questions 30–31).

Part 1: Introduction and background

How did My1Health start?
What problem were you trying to solve?
What milestones has the company achieved so far?

Which countries currently generate the most partner activity?
Countries with the most partners
Countries generating the most patient referrals

Who are the primary users of the My1Health platform?
Travel agents
Medical tourism providers
Hospital staff
Internal My1Health team?

4. Are there different types of partners who use the platform?

Independent agents vs agencies
Experienced facilitators vs beginners
Differences in workflows or permissions

5. What is the typical level of technical confidence among partners?

Experience with CRM systems
Experience with booking platforms

Part 2: New Partner Onboarding (UC1)

6. Can you walk us through the current partner onboarding process?

Steps from registration to first referral
First action partners take after signing up

7. What documents or verification steps are required during onboarding?

Business registration
Certifications
Compliance documentation

8. Where do partners most commonly struggle during onboarding?

Confusing steps
Technical issues
Missing information

9. Which onboarding steps require manual data entry?

Repeated form fields
Uploading documents

10. How do you currently track onboarding completion?

Completion rates
Drop-off points
Analytics dashboards

11. What legal or regulatory requirements must partners meet before joining?

Country-specific medical tourism regulations
Certification or insurance requirements

12. What training or support resources are available for new partners?

Tutorials
Guides
FAQs
Live onboarding sessions

13. If onboarding worked perfectly, what would it look like?

14. What devices do partners typically use during onboarding?

Desktop, mobile, tablet?

Part 3: Booking Workflow (UC2)

15. We would just like to clarify that the booking workflow you want us to focus on will be from the partner’s perspective rather than the patients’?

16. Can you walk us through the current booking workflow?

From patient enquiry to confirmed booking
The first action partners take when a patient contacts them
Is the process different for urgent care patients compared to general care patients? How?

17. What information must partners submit for hospitals to review a patient case?

Patient demographics
Medical history
Diagnostic reports

18. How is patient documentation shared with hospitals?

Platform uploads
Email
Internal coordinators

19. How do partners track the status of a patient case?

Case dashboards, notifications, external tools?

20. What status updates are typically shown during a patient case?

Submitted
Under review
Treatment plan received
Booking confirmed

Asked by me

21. How many patient cases does a partner usually manage at the same time?

Differences between small vs large partners

22. What steps in the booking process take the longest?

Document collection
Hospital response time
Patient confirmation

23. What problems commonly occur when partners submit patient cases?

Missing documents
Incorrect information
Communication delays

24. How often do partners need to revise or update bookings?

Updated medical information
Changes to treatment plan

25. What types of treatments are most commonly referred through the platform?

Cosmetic procedures
Dental
Orthopaedic
Other specialties

26. Does the booking process vary depending on the treatment type?

Additional documentation
More complex approvals

27. Does the platform support predefined treatment packages?

Is there anything else we need to know about the treatment packages that partners use?

Custom treatment plans
Hospital-provided packages

28. Are travel or visa requirements involved in the booking process?

Visa documentation
Travel coordination

29. How are language or interpretation needs handled during bookings?

Translation tools
Interpreters

30. What areas of the booking workflow could be simplified?

Automation opportunities
Removing manual steps

Part 4: Platform adoption, trust and support

31. How do partners usually discover the My1Health platform? travel agents - who may have no medical background, to integrate healthcare 'add-ons' into their traditional travel packages?

Revenue opportunities
Access to hospitals
Expanding services

33. Is there anything we haven't touched on yet that you feel is absolutely critical for us to understand?

Stakeholder interview transcript

The founder interview, from the business overview to the bottlenecks in the booking workflow.

Go to page

Page 1 of 19

Stakeholder Interview Transcript

Title page, then 1. Business Overview.

Read the text version

Founder interview, conducted as part of a Harness UX project

Interviewee: Ryan M, Founder
Format: Video call, about 85 minutes
Team: A cohort of UX students, including me, with a programme mentor

Edited for publication. Names of the student team, mentor and staff, and some commercial details, have been removed or generalised. Removed passages are marked in grey.

Introduction

Mentor

Hi Ryan. I'm the mentor for this cohort. We're very much looking forward to having a chat with you tonight about My1Health. What I might do is get the students to quickly introduce themselves and then we can jump into the questions. Are you able to share your screen if we have some questions about some of the current screens?

Ryan (Founder)

Absolutely, looking forward to it.

Students introduced themselves and their focus areas: one team on partner onboarding, the other (including me) on the booking workflow.

1. Business Overview

Student

How did My1Health start?

Ryan (Founder)

I started My1Health in 2018. Since then we've become one of the world's largest healthcare and wellness facilitators. We operate in the medical tourism industry which is valued at about $116 billion and expected to triple in the next 10 years.

We connect patients and people that want healthcare and wellness services to a leading hospital network around the world. They can travel for anything from getting a health checkup all the way to complex medical treatments such as bone marrow transplant, liver transplant, complex oncology treatment, neurosurgery, and everything in between. We also do the wellness side, which is longevity and anti-aging, because all of our hospitals have departments that focus on those types of healthcare services.

Why it was created

Ryan (Founder)

I was working in emerging markets for quite some time, working in Africa, and I really saw a need in a lot of countries where people couldn't get access to quality healthcare services locally and needed to travel overseas. I had a lot of friends across emerging markets with the same challenges where they'd been diagnosed and needed to figure out where to go.

Obviously the first thing people do is ask their network. The second thing is they might ask somebody in their extended network, might be a travel agent or someone on the ground in their city. And the third is going to Google and starting to search themselves.

The medical tourism sector is extremely fragmented. It's made up of thousands of different players ranging from hospitals trying to compete with each other to medical facilitators to other people trying to integrate healthcare and wellness travel into their service offerings. So that's what led me to want to start it, to make it easier for people when they want to travel for healthcare and wellness services. We act as a guiding hand to get them the right medical treatment.

Growth and scale

Ryan (Founder)

We've assisted about 51,000 patients to date. We have a leading hospital network of about 350 hospitals from all around the world including some of the best hospitals like the London Clinic in the UK, Cromwell in the UK, leading hospitals in Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, China, South Korea, India, Turkey, Egypt and a number of other countries globally.

Three operating segments

Ryan (Founder)

B2C (online): People come to us directly through Google, SEO, referrals. They search for hospitals, doctors, and submit inquiries.
Insurance: We work with about 20 leading insurers in the Middle East and Africa region, supporting their policyholders to travel overseas for medical treatment.
Referral partner segment (your focus): Because we've built a leading position working with so many hospitals, individuals started reaching out saying they have clients that would like to travel for medical treatment and want to use our hospital network to refer them through us.

How the referral segment grew

Ryan (Founder)

It grew from individual medical facilitators, to medical tourism providers, to corporates reaching out wanting to integrate healthcare and wellness travel into their service offerings. It's very difficult to build the hospital network we've been fortunate enough to build. We also have exclusivity with some hospitals in certain regions.

Key corporate partners

[Named corporate partners removed for confidentiality]

What we provide partners

Ryan (Founder)

It doesn't matter if it's a small individual medical facilitator, a travel agent, or a large corporate partner. We help them access our network of 350 partner hospitals around the world. We provide ongoing support and account management through referral partner managers scattered across the world. We've built the technology where they log in and manage their entire business. A very important part is doing automated reconciliations and disbursements. These are small businesses or even large businesses, so it's really important they have visibility into what earnings they're going to have and then making sure they get paid.

Global presence

Hubs: Dubai (Ryan's base), Kenya (looks after Africa), USA (looks after North American market)
Country operations: Canada, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Jordan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal (just opened this month)

2. Milestones & Goals

Student

Any additional milestones you haven't mentioned?

Ryan (Founder)

52,000 patients assisted to date
Built probably the largest healthcare network in the world for tier one hospitals. Some competitors have larger networks but mainly tier 2 and tier 3 hospitals.
Exclusive partnerships with some hospitals (they only work with us)

[Funding and growth targets removed for confidentiality]

3. Markets

Student

Which countries generate the most partner activity?

Ryan (Founder)

We act as a double-sided marketplace. We have source markets and destination countries.

Destination countries (where patients travel to)

Thailand (largest)
UAE / Dubai (second largest)
Turkey
India
Others: Malaysia and scattered from other places

Source markets (where patients come from)

Bangladesh (number one market in terms of patient volume)
Africa as a region (second)
Middle East (third)
Then a scattering of patients from pretty much every country across the planet each month

4. Users & Systems

Student

Who are the primary users? Travel agents, medical tourism providers, hospital staff, internal team?

Ryan (Founder)

We have different systems. We've got our IMS system which we built from scratch for ourselves that we use internally. We have a referral partner system which is an external facing platform that links into our IMS system and that's where our referral partners use it.

Of the referral partners signed up, the majority are currently individuals who wanted to start a medical tourism business. We've got quite a few travel agents. And then other corporates. It's really a scattering after that.

5. Partner Types & Workflows

Student

Are there different types of partners who use the platform?

Ryan (Founder)

Travel agents
Individuals that want to start a medical tourism business
Corporates that want to integrate or diversify into a new revenue stream

Three workflow categories

Ryan (Founder)

Individual: single user, runs their whole business on the platform, uploads cases, does reconciliation and disbursements.
Company: more than one person. Parent account with child accounts for other team members.
AI-assisted via WhatsApp: We just launched Cena, an AI agent for referral partners. They can communicate via WhatsApp, upload medical reports, do bookings through WhatsApp, and it automatically pulls into the system for them to track all their cases.

6. Technical Comfort

Student

What is the typical technical level of partners?

Ryan (Founder)

Very, very widely different. Some people just want to use WhatsApp and don't really use a lot of systems. Others already use other systems, especially travel agents. So our system is then a different system for them to use. It widely differs.

7. CRM & Platform Experience

Student

What about the experience with CRM systems?

Ryan (Founder)

We've integrated a basic CRM system into the referral partner network system so they can manage their clients. We're building that out to be more robust. Think of the referral partner system as a CRM system and also to be able to manage all their cases. We also have our internal management system which we track all referral partners through. Those are separate, external parties can't access or see any of that data.

Student

What is the experience or the feeling among partners with the booking platform? Easy or confusing?

Ryan (Founder)

I would say overall probably confusing, and we really need to simplify everything.

Revenue model context

Ryan (Founder)

When they join our network we don't charge them anything. It's a free sign-up. We only make money when they refer cases. We have a revenue share with the hospitals but we have a same-price guarantee, so if the patient travels directly to the hospital or through us it's the same price. We do a revenue share with our partners, so they only get paid when we get paid by the hospitals.

Key platform issues identified

Searching hospitals is difficult
Identifying commission rates to different hospitals
Understanding unique selling points of different hospitals
Selecting the right place for their clients

"I think we've got a lot of work to do on this, simplifying everything."

8. Onboarding Process

Student

Can you walk us through the current partner onboarding process?

Ryan (Founder)

It's very manual. I'm going to be honest, it's not the best and we need to automate it.

Current process

Partner goes to website and submits a form registering interest to join
We allocate them to a referral partner manager to have a call
If we decide to move forward, we send a contract via PandaDoc (electronic sign)
They sign, we create an account
They get a welcome message
1-hour onboarding session with allocated referral partner manager using a welcome pack document
After that, constant engagement with referral partners for new announcements, updates, incentives

How ongoing communication happens

Ryan (Founder)

WhatsApp. Each referral partner has a WhatsApp group. We do announcements through the system too, but they just don't log into the system enough. In emerging markets WhatsApp is what they're on every day, so we do the announcements on WhatsApp.

Verification: Individuals

Passport or ID
Verification call to vet who they are
Bank/account details uploaded

Verification: Corporates

Valid corporate documents (business license / trade license, renewed yearly in some countries like Dubai)
Director's passport or ID to confirm identity
Bank details (name on bank must match name on trade license)

All documents get reviewed and approved or rejected by a dedicated person.

Automation status

Ryan (Founder)

Most of it's automated at the moment. When someone from Bangladesh registers, it automatically goes to the Bangladesh referral partner manager. Indonesia goes to Indonesia. Automatically allocated. Once approved, it automatically kicks off a welcome email with login credentials. We haven't integrated with PandaDoc where approval automatically creates and sends the contract. They do that manually in PandaDoc. But everything else is pretty much automated.

9. Common Onboarding Challenges

Student

Where do partners most commonly struggle during onboarding?

Ryan (Founder)

New entrants to the industry

Their struggle is: how do I find clients and how do I market to them? That's the first thing during onboarding. "Okay, this all sounds great, but how do I find clients and how do I onboard them?"

Existing medical facilitators

People that already have direct relationships with hospitals and are already in this industry. Probably the main thing they're looking for is which hospitals do you work with and how much do I get paid. I'm going to be honest on that.

Larger corporates

Onboarding is a team effort. Multiple people from different departments on a call. We have to identify a product champion, someone who assists on the client-facing side. If they haven't done it before, it's how do I market and get more clients and handle those clients. If they're already in the industry, it's which hospitals and how much do I get paid.

10. Drop-offs & Rejections

Student

Why do people drop off? Are there many rejections and what causes them?

Ryan (Founder)

People just want to sign up and don't give us all the information. We're very strict. It's pretty basic what we ask for.

Individuals must supply passport or ID. Some people don't want to do that, so we won't work with them.
Corporates need a valid trade license or valid document.
Valid identity document of the manager or director signing the agreement.
Bank details uploaded, and name on bank must match name on trade license.

If anything's not right, we reject working with them.

Student

Can we get access to analytics around this? Completion rates, drop-off data?

Ryan (Founder)

If you send me a list of what data you need, I can request the team to give you that data. They'll be able to pull it quite easily.

11. Legal & Regulatory Requirements

Student

What legal or regulatory requirements must partners meet before joining?

Ryan (Founder)

Our industry is interesting because it's not usually a regulated industry. We are an intermediary. We don't provide medical advice. We don't provide medical treatment. All we do is link people up with certified quality hospitals globally where the specialists make the recommendation. We just link them up and act as the coordinator.

Country-specific regulation

Very small number of countries require a special medical tourism provider license: Ethiopia, Bangladesh, South Sudan.
Most countries (Dubai, UK, US) have no license requirement as long as no medical advice is given.
If partners are in the travel agent space, they need to prove they have a valid travel license.
If in another regulated space, they need a valid license for that sector.

Destination countries

No licenses required to send patients to a specific country. We're allowed to refer patients anywhere in the world.

My1Health is licensed by the Dubai Health Authority. One of the only medical providers licensed there. Had a partnership to help put Dubai on the map for medical treatment and healthcare travel.

[Details of an unannounced programme removed for confidentiality]

Insurance

Professional indemnity is a must. Standard insurance. We don't provide medical advice or treatment. Based on our terms and conditions, we're not liable if anything goes wrong. That risk is with the hospital. Those hospitals are covered for those scenarios.

12. Training & Support

Student

What training or support resources are available for new partners?

Ryan (Founder)

Some basic videos, tutorials, and guides
Partner certification program in the referral partner system where they can become a certified healthcare and wellness travel professional. Launched last year, decent uptake. Not mandatory.

"I think we need to make it better though."

13. Ideal Onboarding Vision

Student

If onboarding worked perfectly, what would it look like to you?

Ryan (Founder)

That's a really good question.

Automated: Not leaving it to referral partner managers to do too much of the onboarding and training. When we leave it to individuals, they might do it slightly different.
Modular: Different sub-components or modules for the different partner types.

Why modular matters

Ryan (Founder)

We're still testing where we're going to make the biggest impact. Travel agents? Individual medical providers? Large corporates? Beauticians? There's so many different subsects.

How we approach onboarding for a travel agent would be quite different. They already have clients who are traveling. It's about encouraging their existing customers to consider a health checkup or longevity or anti-aging. If you're selling them a trip to the UK, offer them an upsell to go to a leading hospital for longevity treatment. That's something I think we're missing. But it would be very different for a medical tourism provider who focuses on the medical side.

Timeline

Ryan (Founder)

If we could do it in a day that would be fantastic. If we could do it in an hour, fantastic. The shorter the better. But if onboarding's too short, they're not going to learn anything and might disappear. If it's too long, they get annoyed and don't finish. It's about finding that sweet spot, getting them excited to learn more. Maybe one day would be good and then doing a call with their referral partner manager after that.

14. Key Problem: Activation

Ryan (Founder)

I think how we look at it, we have partner acquisition, we have onboarding new partners, then we have activation (activating new partners), and then we have scaling partners.

We probably have a two-step problem. One, a lot of those referral partners would never become active, so we have to do better sourcing. Two, we need to do better onboarding.

15. Devices & Usage Patterns

Student

What devices do partners typically use during onboarding and for booking?

Ryan (Founder)

Most people use their phones, especially individuals and smaller medical facilitators. They're always out and about. If it's a larger company with two, three, four people, they'll use a desktop.

In terms of workflows they like to use, some people just send their referral partner manager the case. "Here's my case, here's the medical records, you upload it." So they just send that to us. That's been a challenge to get them to use the system.

Now we've launched Cena, the AI agent, they can interact with Cena, ask questions, upload cases, and it automatically pulls directly into the system.

A lot of them default to just using WhatsApp and sending cases on WhatsApp, but we've really been trying to push them to use the system.

16. Booking Workflow

Student

We just wanted to clarify that you want us to focus on the booking workflow from the partner's perspective rather than the patient's?

Ryan (Founder)

Yeah, that's correct. We deal directly with patients through a different segment. This one will be about the partner.

Student

Can you walk us through the current booking workflow?

Ryan (Founder)

There are two very different things: a booking and a treatment plan.

Flow 1: Simple Booking

Someone wants to go to a hospital for whatever service, on a specific date. They upload the information, patient details, which hospital they want, when they want to go, click submit. That gets sent to us, we confirm it with the hospital, and the booking goes from pending to confirmed. Nice easy workflow.

Flow 2: Treatment Plan (inquiry process)

This is when a patient has been diagnosed and wants to know their options. Take a knee replacement as an example.

The patient wants to know: Do I need a knee replacement? What types do you provide, with what technology, expertise, implants? How long in hospital? How long in country? And how much does it cost?

We take the medical records from the patient, share with the hospital or specialist. The specialist reviews the records and based on that provides a recommendation. For example: patient has arthritis, no cartilage, needs knee replacement. We'd suggest robotic-assisted procedure, maybe with a Mako system. This is the implant we're going to use. Two nights in hospital, discharged on third day, need to stay in country another week for follow-up before traveling home. Cost is $5,000 if India or $20,000 if UK.

All that information gets submitted by the specialist. We give it to the partner to share with their patient.

Generally partners and patients like to get between two to three different quotes or treatment plans so they can make an informed decision.

One of the biggest challenges is that patients also shop around. They might get it from us, go directly to a hospital, go to another facilitator to compare.

Full inquiry flow

Partner uploads medical records and patient details
Submitted to My1Health
My1Health sends to hospital
Hospital specialist provides treatment plan
Treatment plan uploaded to system and sent back to partner
Partner downloads treatment plan and sends to patient
Patient decides whether to move forward
If desired, telemedicine consultation with specialist can be arranged
If patient moves forward, inquiry converts to a booking
Booking requires: patient passport, travel dates, logistics coordination

Volume breakdown

Student

Which is more commonly booked?

Ryan (Founder)

In terms of volume, it's health checkups and seeing a doctor. Those are outpatient services. Inpatient services are a smaller number but much higher in value, with people traveling for more complex procedures.

17. Healthcare Coordination Team

Student

How much of the communication between hospital and patient is automated?

Ryan (Founder)

We have a team of healthcare coordinators. They take the inquiries and send them off to hospitals.

The team is building an AI agent for healthcare coordination that will automatically take all the medical records, scan to make sure it's a complete inquiry, and if so send it off to the hospital.

As we continue to scale, we want to try to integrate directly with hospitals. But when it comes to healthcare data it's harder. Hospitals are notoriously risk-averse. Not sure if it would be possible but we're going to try.

18. Urgent Care Process

Student

Is the process different for urgent care patients compared to general care patients?

Ryan (Founder)

Absolutely. If it's urgent care, depends on the type. We do some emergency evacuation. We work with three emergency evacuation providers:

One out of Kenya that looks after Africa
One out of Dubai that looks after most global markets
One out of Indonesia that looks after Southeast Asia

If it's an urgent care case, we always say reach out to us on WhatsApp, escalate this. Then we start coordinating with emergency evacuation providers and hospitals to see if they can be accepted. Some hospitals will not accept patients if they don't think they can treat them.

19. Required Documentation for Cases

Student

What information do partners need to submit for hospitals to review a patient case?

Ryan (Founder)

If it's a booking, it's just a passport and when they want to travel.

If it's a medical case, it depends on the type. Generally hospitals request medical records no older than 6 months. If it's an oncology case, they request no older than 3 months. Some hospitals will accept records a little older, but generally 6 months for normal cases and under 3 months for oncology.

20. How Documentation Is Shared With Hospitals

Student

How is patient documentation shared with hospitals?

Ryan (Founder)

It depends on the hospital and location. The most stringent is the UK with GDPR. We send a request via email for official logging. They send us a secure encrypted link where we upload the medical records.

Even the US isn't as stringent. We're talking about Mayo Clinic and Massachusetts General Hospital, and even they're not as strict as the London Clinic in the UK.

Generally it's via encrypted email. Some hospitals depending on location will have a unique link for uploading medical records.

21. Case Status Tracking

Student

How do partners track the status of a patient case?

Ryan (Founder)

All through the system. They track through different stages. We constantly update the status. They just need to log in at any time and see the current status.

Student

They don't get email notifications? They have to physically log in?

Ryan (Founder)

I believe so, yeah. We're going to try to build out a lot more features in Cena, that AI agent, so they can give real-time updates when things change. But right now they do need to log into the system.

Status flow

Ryan (Founder)

The team just launched a new patient journey last week. I haven't been involved in that but generally:

Inquiry submitted
Sent to hospital
Receipt from hospital (for treatment plans)
Sent to client / referral partner
Accepted, stays pending, or rejected
If accepted: booking request sent to hospital
Hospital accepts (figuring out correct dates)
Booking confirmed
Pre-travel (letter of invitation if needed, airport transfer)
Patient has traveled
Patient turned up at hospital
Patient admitted
Patient discharged
Patient finished treatment

22. Timeline

Student

How long is the whole process from inquiry to travel in a real case?

Ryan (Founder)

It really depends on the complexity.

Easy side: 1 to 3 months from booking request to travel, then finish quickly (day or two, or a week)
Complex cases: Some treatments could be $60,000 to $100,000, so it takes time to get funds together. Can be between 1 and 6 months to travel.
Oncology: could be there for 6 months
Bone marrow transplant: could be 3 months
Complicated cases with underlying conditions: people have been there for 6 months or longer

The smaller minority are the complex long-stay cases. Generally 1 to 3 months to travel and then finish treatment pretty quickly.

23. Partner Case Volume & Market Context

Eleonor (me)

How many patient cases does a partner usually manage at the same time?

Ryan (Founder)

Since we just really put a lot of focus into this and started international hires last year, we're still pretty small. For active partners, probably 2 to 5 cases a month. We had one person who did about 10 bookings in a month. Could be one case a month, could be up to 10. On our online side we handle hundreds of patients every month.

Global market context

Ryan (Founder)

Just to put this in perspective:

22 million people travel every year for medical treatment globally
450,000 people leave Bangladesh each year for healthcare services
250,000 leave Cambodia for healthcare
Indonesia is the largest outbound medical travel market: 2 million Indonesians leave each year for healthcare abroad

[Partner and competitor details removed for confidentiality]

24. Key Bottlenecks

Eleonor (me)

What steps in the booking process take the longest?

Ryan (Founder)

Sometimes it's medical records. Part of the problem is the patient can't access their medical records. There are hospitals in some countries where it's just notoriously hard to get your own medical records, which is completely nuts. It's your medical records. But hospitals don't want to do that because they don't want to lose the patient.

There can be a really big delay in getting medical records to upload. They might submit an inquiry, we don't have enough information, we go back to them saying the hospital's requesting more information, and it takes them a very long time to find that information if they can. That's probably the biggest blockage.

Checklists for partners and patients

Eleonor (me)

Do patients ordinarily know what they need to provide?

Ryan (Founder)

We've sent them a template on WhatsApp. Like, hey, when you're submitting an inquiry to us, fill in the blanks. That was really good. I think we need to improve it.

It's not always the partner's fault. They work with what they have. If a patient comes with medical reports that are seven months old but we need six months, it's difficult for the partner to go back. They'll just submit what they have, which leads to back and forth between our team and the referral partners.

We've mentioned it multiple times to referral partners but I don't think we've ever done something from a patient-facing side for them to give to their patients. A simple checklist for the referral partner to share with patients, which we haven't done. That's an easy solve.

25. Common Errors When Submitting Cases

Eleonor (me)

What problems commonly occur when partners submit patient cases?

Ryan (Founder)

Information missing
Names that don't match the passport
Non-genuine cases: people who want a letter of invitation for non-medical reasons. We have to be very careful on that one.
Scheduling conflicts: back and forth when the doctor's available vs. when the patient will be available. If they want a specific specialist who's not available during a two-day trip, trips get rescheduled.

26. Booking Revisions

Student

How often do partners need to revise or update bookings?

Ryan (Founder)

It definitely does happen. There's one partner I see all the time who constantly adds more information because she really uses the system and manages her whole business in it. But that's probably not the norm.

They'll usually upload what they have and generally don't revise the bookings. Usually it's our team that might have to do that for them.

There's a small number of partners who, when we say there's missing information, will upload it themselves. Most partners will just send it to us via WhatsApp because they'll get annoyed. "I've already submitted the inquiry. Here's the medical records you've requested." So they won't update it themselves. Our team has to do that.

27. Treatment Types & Process Variations

Student

What types of treatments are most commonly referred?

Ryan (Founder)

Different across all three segments. Probably the first category is outpatient: health checks or seeing a doctor, that's the largest. We have some oncology cases, a small number of cosmetic cases. We haven't really focused on cosmetics although we should. I'd need to pull the latest data. Send a message and the team can pull that for you.

Student

Does the booking process vary by treatment type?

Ryan (Founder)

I'd say we have two: outpatient and inpatient.

Outpatient: I just want to see a doctor, get a checkup. That's just a booking. Patient selects service, day, hospital, specific doctor if desired. We send the request, confirm, done. Nice and easy.
Inpatient: Longer process, generally starts from getting a treatment plan from multiple hospitals. Treatment plan takes time, then converts to a booking.

Treatment plans can also be for cosmetics, oncology, pretty much anything. A lot of hospitals, even for cosmetic cases, still want to do a treatment plan versus just give a package.

28. Treatment Packages

Student

Does the platform support predefined treatment packages?

Ryan (Founder)

Yes. Some hospitals do packages. We've uploaded a bunch of packages. We've got six care pathways that the team launched this year and they're uploading packages surrounding those in a phased approach.

It's not for everything. Sometimes they still need a treatment plan. But for a knee replacement at some hospitals, they have a package. For spine surgery, depending on the hospital. Partners can select packages.

Generally they'll still need to send medical records just to confirm the treatment is still right before they travel. But at least they have an idea of cost.

29. Visa & Travel Logistics

Student

How do you accommodate visa and travel logistics in the booking process? Have you considered this workflow as part of the platform?

Ryan (Founder)

From my understanding they've only done it to a limited extent. Letter of invitation, airport transfer. But it could be made much better. Very limited at the moment.

Student

Would you like us to factor this into our design?

Ryan (Founder)

Yeah, that would be really good. I definitely think that would be an important integration. Very clear from the referral partner side what's required depending on country specifics. Internally for us to make sure we don't miss steps. And then we can train the AI on it to understand the workflows better.

Visa requirements by country

Ryan (Founder)

It depends on which country the patient's traveling from and requirements in the destination country.

Patients from Australia: visas are easy, visa on arrival, not a problem.
Patients from emerging markets like Bangladesh: generally need a letter of invitation. We need the passport, attendant details, send to hospital, get letter of invitation back for visa application.
UK and Turkey: depending on source country, they require a deposit to be paid before getting a letter of invitation. People sometimes use this as a way to get into Europe, so the deposit ensures they show up.
We help with airport transfers, accommodation, and making sure everything's ready for arrival.

Has a visa ever killed a booking?

Ryan (Founder)

Absolutely. It happens all the time. Thailand, UK, Germany, wherever it might be. Some hospitals are very selective now. Some will just say we will not accept patients from specific countries because the visa approval rate is very low, especially for Germany. They're very careful on which countries they'll accept cases from.

We'll accept any case. If someone needs medical treatment, we'll always accept them. If rejected from one country, we always offer alternatives because we work with hospitals in 21 countries. If they get rejected from Thailand, we'd say would you like us to apply to Malaysia? Generally if someone is doing it for a different reason they'll say no. If someone genuinely wants medical treatment, they'll be open to changing the country. We can offer alternatives where visa restrictions might be lower.

30. Language & Interpretation

Student

Any showstoppers from language barriers or the need for interpreters?

Ryan (Founder)

That's why we have a globally dispersed team. Someone in the Middle East speaks Arabic and looks after referral partners in the Middle East. Someone from Bangladesh speaks Bengali and deals with partners in Bangladesh. Same in Indonesia. So communicating with referral partners is not a problem.

When it comes to patients traveling to hospitals, we can normally organize free translators for most major languages. Not a problem.

Student

So no need for localization of the app itself?

Ryan (Founder)

At the moment we don't need to worry about translating it. It's a nice-to-have, not a must-to-have. As we scale and start seeing success in the Middle East, there are more than enough potential referral partners that speak both Arabic and English to target first. But if Middle East becomes a really big market, there will be people where English isn't their strength and we'd need to localize. But most people who operate in this sector because it's international, most of them do speak English.

31. Automation Opportunities

Student

If you could remove or automate one step in the booking process that eats up the most partner time, what would it be?

Ryan (Founder)

Number one: integrating with an OCR scanner. The patient should just be able to upload the passport copy and it should scan and extract all the patient details automatically.

Number two: medical records. Upload medical records, scan it, have an AI look at it, be able to summarize the case. So they don't need to worry about that too much.

Those would probably be the two main things that would be very useful.

32. How Partners Discover My1Health

Student

How do partners usually discover the platform, especially travel agents without medical background wanting to integrate healthcare as an add-on?

Ryan (Founder)

Inbound: People finding us online, coming to website, submitting request. About 20 to 30 inquiries a month. Most probably not serious.
Referral partner managers: They have targets to do outreach in their locations and sign up referral partners.
Large partners: Me or our Chief Growth Officer reaches out to strategic partners.

[Future plans removed for confidentiality]

33. Wrap-Up

Student

Is there anything we haven't covered that's critical for us to know?

Ryan (Founder)

No, I think we've pretty much covered everything.

Mentor

Ryan, thank you so much for your time this evening. It's amazing to hear your in-depth responses. We're taking away a lot of information that we need to digest and work out where we want to focus.

Action items

Copy of the welcome pack for referrals
Screenshots of onboarding process and system
Team to send a list of analytics requests

Ryan (Founder)

It's about 1:25 PM here in Dubai. No worries, thank you guys.

End of transcript

Follow-up questions and requests

The follow-up questions sent to the client after the interview.

Page 1: Additional Questions and Requests for the Client. Title page, then UC1: New partner onboarding; UC2: Booking workflow.

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Page 1 of 1

Additional Questions and Requests for the Client

Title page, then UC1: New partner onboarding; UC2: Booking workflow.

Read the text version

Follow-up questions sent after the founder interview (week 3)

Edited for publication. Team members’ and the mentor’s names are removed.

UC1: New partner onboarding improvements
UC2: Streamline and improve the booking workflow

UC1: New partner onboarding

In the 24 hours when My1Health are verifying, what exactly is being verified for individuals, businesses and corporates?
Could you provide some examples of the contracts?
Can we also have access to the training material? We want to understand its structure.

UC2: Booking workflow

Will My1Health provide people for usability testing? Ideally partners with a range of experience, from low-tech to experienced.
After a patient has submitted a booking enquiry, what information is given to the partner, and in what form? For example, does it all come from a database, or are they given the patient’s responses in a form?
Is there currently a flow for entering new clients without submitting an initial enquiry first?

The legacy journey

Every case followed the same steps, whether it was a routine wellness check or an urgent procedure. Officers had no fast way to find the right partner hospital, and no way to see which clients had stalled on uploading documents.

The legacy booking flow, screen by screen:

Legacy Book a service screen: Select the service you wish to book for your client, with four radio options (Healthcare and Wellness Package, Beauty and Cosmetic Package, Appointment Booking, Treatment Cost Estimate) and a Next button. — Book a service: the officer chooses one of four service types, with no guidance on which fits the client.

Legacy step 1 of 3, Appointment details: empty dropdowns for client’s country of residence and preferred country of travel, with Back and Proceed buttons. — Step 1 of 3: the client’s country of residence and preferred country of travel.

Legacy step 1 of 3 filled in: Australia to Thailand, with a notice listing two facilities, Bumrungrad International Hospital and Vejthani Hospital, as plain radio options. — Partner hospitals then appear as a list of names, with nothing to compare them by.

Legacy step 2 of 3, Client details for Bumrungrad International Hospital: a search for existing clients above empty fields for full names, gender, date of birth, nationality, preferred appointment date and specialty. — Step 2 of 3: client details are typed in by hand, with only a search for existing clients.

Legacy step 2 continued: translator yes or no, a preferred doctor field, and a required healthcare and wellness concern description, with Back and Proceed buttons. — The rest of step 2: translator, preferred doctor and the healthcare concern.

Legacy step 3 of 3, Attachments: drag-and-drop areas for the client’s passport and most recent medical records, a medical records link field and optional remarks, with Back and Submit buttons. — Step 3 of 3: the passport and medical records are requested last.

Legacy confirmation modal: Request submitted successfully. In case of any additional information, your account executive will reach out to you. An OK button. — Submitted, with no next steps beyond “your account executive will reach out”.

Heuristic evaluation and WCAG 2.2 AA audit

Evaluated the existing platform against Nielsen's ten heuristics and audited it against WCAG 2.2 AA, drawing on the CEO interview and stakeholder feedback. The audit was a desk review.

Four heuristics rated High severity: visibility of system status, user control and freedom, error prevention, and recognition rather than recall. Three themes ran through the findings:

The notification gap. Partners have no automated updates, so they must remember to log in and check.
Reliance on human intervention. The system doesn't prevent errors such as old records or mismatched names, so the My1Health team coordinates fixes by hand.
The WhatsApp preference. Partners prefer WhatsApp to the system, which signals a weak match with the real world and with how partners want to work.

WCAG 2.2 AA audit of the existing platform
Criterion	Status	Observation
1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)	Risk, then confirmed	Stakeholders described the original design as text-heavy. A WebAIM check confirmed white text on the brand teal (#009DA4) reaches 3.3:1. That passes AA for large text (3:1) but fails AA for normal text (4.5:1).
2.1.1 Keyboard	Likely violation	Complex inquiry and booking workflows with many fields tend to fail if they can't be completed with the Tab key alone.
2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum), new in 2.2	Risk	Sticky headers or the Cena AI chat bubble might cover input fields while tabbing through the booking form.
2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum), new in 2.2	Risk	Many partners use mobile devices while walking around a hospital. Small, cramped buttons lead to mis-taps.
3.3.3 Error Suggestion	Violation	Errors turn into back-and-forth on WhatsApp because the system doesn't explain what's wrong, e.g. a record older than 6 months.
4.1.3 Status Messages	Major violation	Partners are out of the loop on status changes unless they log in.

Heuristic evaluation of the existing platform

All ten heuristics, with what I found and what I recommended.

Heuristic evaluation of the My1Health RPNS
Heuristic	What I found	Recommendation	Severity
1. Visibility of system status	Partners must log in to track case status. No automated email or WhatsApp notifications for status changes.	Integrate the Cena AI agent to push real-time status alerts (e.g. “Treatment Plan Received”) by WhatsApp or email.	High
2. Match between system and real world	Mixed. Standard medical tourism terms are used, but partners feel most comfortable on WhatsApp, and the workflow doesn't yet feel as natural as a chat.	Move to a conversational, concierge-style onboarding that mirrors the human coordination partners rely on.	Medium
3. User control and freedom	Partners can't revise submitted information themselves. The My1Health team fixes it manually, with no clear edit function.	A self-service revision portal to add missing documents or edit pending cases.	High
4. Consistency and standards	Onboarding varies between individuals and corporates with no unified design system.	Modular onboarding paths by partner type, e.g. travel agent and medical facilitator.	Medium
5. Error prevention	The system accepts incomplete inquiries and medical records older than 6 months, which hospitals then reject.	Use OCR to auto-fill identity details from passports and add constraints, e.g. a date picker that blocks outdated files.	High
6. Recognition rather than recall	Partners must remember hospital requirements (e.g. the 6-month oncology rule) because there's no context-sensitive checklist during upload.	Dynamic checklists that change with treatment type or destination country.	High
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use	No shortcuts exist for agencies managing bulk cases.	Bulk uploading for agencies and AI summarisation of medical records.	Medium
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design	Opportunity. Stakeholders described earlier versions as text-heavy and overwhelming.	A card-based, minimalist design that separates simple bookings from complex treatment plans.	Low
9. Help users with errors	Missing information is handled through back-and-forth on WhatsApp instead of clear diagnostic error messages.	Specific error prompts (e.g. “The name on this passport does not match the form”) with steps to fix the issue.	Medium
10. Help and documentation	Mixed. Basic tutorials and a certification programme exist, but need to be better integrated into the workflow.	Embedded help bubbles and a searchable FAQ focused on common showstoppers (visa requirements, medical record access).	Low

RPNS priority action plan

RPNS priority action plan from the heuristic analysis
Priority	Heuristic	Proposed change	Goal
Critical	Error prevention	OCR passport and document scanner	Extract client data from passports automatically to prevent mismatched names and typos.
Critical	Visibility of system status	Automated status labels and Cena AI integration	Push real-time status updates to partners by WhatsApp.
High	Recognition rather than recall	Interactive client checklists	Show partners and clients specific requirements (e.g. the 6-month medical record rule).
High	Flexibility and efficiency	AI medical record summariser	Cut the time coordinators and partners spend reviewing uploaded records.
Medium	Consistency and standards	Modular onboarding modules	Tailor onboarding to partner type to increase activation.
Medium	User control and freedom	Self-service edit and revision portal	Let partners update or add documents to a pending case without the internal team.

Map the logic before the screens

The redesign relied on automation, so the interface was only half the work. The referral journey was mapped in three stages: document upload with OCR checks, automatic hospital matching, and review and submission.

Flow diagram of the Refer a Client journey in three stages. Stage 1: an officer or client uploads scans, OCR checks passport and medical file validity, invalid scans are flagged for re-upload. Stage 2: the auto-match engine scores facilities and the officer approves a match. Stage 3: the officer reviews and submits the referral, which goes to the hospital.

Journey flow for referring a client.

Then the 'Intake and Profile Creation' triggers were detailed: exact rules for OCR scanning (e.g. checking a passport has at least 6 months validity remaining, flagging name mismatches between documents and the client profile), branching paths for companion logistics, and automated re-send triggers for intake messages.

The full logic flow for intake and profile creation. Select it to open full size; each part is shown larger below.

1. Start and the automated intake request

Logic flow, part 1: after login the officer refers a new client, which sends one automated request covering identity verification, medical documents and companion logistics. If the client hasn't opened the message, the system re-sends it after a set number of days and alerts the officer to follow up. — One request covers identity, medical documents and companion details. If the client doesn't open it, the system re-sends it and prompts the officer to follow up.

2. Identity verification

Logic flow, part 2: the client drops a passport scan into the Client Vault; OCR checks for 6 months validity and a name match. If valid, identity is marked verified and both client and officer are notified. If not, the officer marks it invalid and sends an editable message asking for a new scan. — OCR checks the passport for 6+ months of validity and a name match before identity is marked as verified.

3. Medical documents

Logic flow, part 3: the client drops medical files into the Client Vault; OCR checks the scan dates and name, and the officer is alerted. Valid files are checked for name and legibility in the Medical Docs viewer, marked valid, and the assigned facility process begins. Old, illegible or mismatched files trigger an alert, an Awaiting Documents status and a request for a new scan. — Scans are checked for age, name and legibility. Anything that fails is flagged as Awaiting Documents and re-requested; valid files start the assigned facility process.

4. Companion logistics

Logic flow, part 4: the client toggles whether a companion is travelling. If no, the client file is noted and both parties are notified. If yes, the client completes companion details, the companion is linked to a single Trip ID, and the companion passport goes through the same OCR check, with a Pending Companion Doc status if it fails. — A yes or no toggle branches the flow. A companion gets linked to the same trip and the same passport checks.

5. The automated intake message

Subject: Action Required: Finalising your Travel Profile for [Destination]

Hello [Client Name],

We are excited to assist you with your medical travel journey. To move your trip from the ‘Inquiry’ phase to ‘Confirmed Status’, we kindly request that you provide the following items as soon as possible via our secure Client Vault.

What you need to upload:

Identity Verification: a clear colour copy of your passport with at least 6 months of validity remaining from your planned travel date. [Upload passport here]
Medical Readiness: your most recent medical scans (X-rays, MRI or CT reports) made within the last 3 months, so our Assigned Facility can finalise your clinical review. [Upload medical documents here]
Companion Logistics: please confirm if a companion will be travelling with you. If yes, we require a clear colour copy of their passport to secure their hotel stay and airport transfer. [Confirm companion details here]

Next steps: once these documents are verified in your Client Vault, our team will formally issue your Hospital Invitation Letter and provide your detailed itinerary.

6. Intake form fields and OCR auto-fill

The form is divided into logic blocks that match the Trip Management pillars.

Section	Mandatory details	OCR logic (auto-fill)
Personal info	Full name, date of birth, gender, nationality	Scanned from the passport's machine-readable zone (MRZ)
Identity	Passport number, issue date, expiry date	Flags instantly if under 6 months' validity remains
Medical intent	Trip category (e.g. dental), primary complaint	Extracted from the medical documents' header or summary
Contact	Email, phone (WhatsApp preferred), home city	Extracted from the initial enquiry or referral form
Companion	Yes / no toggle	If yes, opens the companion profile sub-form

Read the logic flow as text

1. Start and the automated intake request

The officer logs in to RPNS and refers a new client.
One automated request goes to the client's inbox or WhatsApp, covering identity verification, a medical document request and companion logistics.
Did the client receive and open the message? If yes, a system notification pops up in the officer's Chat & Updates. If no, the system re-sends the intake message after a set number of days, the officer gets a “Re-sent Intake Message” alert, and follows up with the client via Chat & Updates.

2. Identity verification

The client drops a colour passport scan into the Client Vault.
OCR checks the passport for 6+ months of validity and that the name matches the client profile.
Valid and matching: the passport is marked received, identity is marked verified, and “verified identity” messages go to the client and the officer.
Not valid: the officer marks the document “Invalid” in Trip Management, edits the message if needed, and sends it; the client is asked for a new scan.

3. Medical documents

The client drops medical files into the Client Vault. OCR checks the scan dates and the name against the client profile, and confirms the file format (e.g. DICOM, PDF, JPEG). The officer gets a “Document Uploaded” alert.
If the dates are valid and the name matches, the officer verifies the name and scan date, and checks the files in the Medical Docs viewer, which has zoom and contrast tools for spotting blur or cut-off text.
Clear, legible and matching: the officer marks them “Valid”, “Valid Medical Docs” messages go to the client and the officer, and the assigned facility process begins.
Too old (e.g. over 6 months, or 3 months in some cases), illegible or mismatched: the system sends an “Illegible File” alert, sets the status to “Awaiting Documents”, and the officer marks the file invalid and asks for a new scan.

4. Companion logistics

The client uses a yes or no toggle: is a companion travelling?
No: “No companion” is noted on the client profile, and messages go to the officer and, separately, to the client.
Yes: the client fills in the companion's name, relationship, special requirements (accommodation, diet or accessibility) and travel insurance. The companion is linked to the client's profile under a single Trip ID, and a secure link asks for the companion's passport.
OCR checks the companion's passport for 6+ months of validity and a name match. If it passes, the companion's identity is verified; if not, the status becomes “Pending Companion Doc” and the officer requests a new scan.

Sketches and wireframes

Began with hand-drawn sketches in a notebook. They worked out the four-step progress bar (of the intake form itself) and the Quick Actions row on the dashboard, and allowed iterating on layout without getting bogged down in pixels.

I then turned the sketches into wireframes, and built a prototype from them for user testing on Lyssna.

The redesign

The ideal intake flow

The redesign turns the legacy flow around. Instead of typing a profile by hand and asking for documents last, officers find or import the client first, collect and check documents early, get ranked hospital matches automatically, and review everything on one error-safe screen. Each step answers a pain point in the legacy flow above.

1
Step 1: Client details
- Starts by finding or importing the person, not typing them in
- Three tabs auto-populate the form: Search for client, Fetch my client and Import client passport
- Fetch and Import form the OCR-driven Secure Vault Bridge
- Required fields carry a red asterisk, and optional fields say so in the label
Before: officers entered every detail by hand, reading off emailed PDFs and typing into dense forms.
See the step 1 screens in the Solution
2
Step 2: Medical documents
- Officers send the client a secure upload link by SMS, with an editable message, or upload the files themselves, because many partners prefer WhatsApp
- Either path triggers OCR extraction, with a real-time accuracy score
- An SMS preview shows the message before it goes out, so officers stay in control of what the client receives
See the step 2 screens in the Solution
3
Step 3: Service type and location
- Officers choose the service, set urgency, and say whether the client is travelling with a companion
- Routine care (4 to 12 weeks) and urgent care (within 2 weeks) follow different paths
- Urgent referrals are flagged as priority, with a fast-tracked hospital review within 24 to 48 hours
- The RPNS location-matching engine ranks best-fit partner hospitals as soon as the client's home and treatment countries are entered, based on proximity, visa corridor and flight-safety timing
See the step 3 screens in the Solution
4
Step 4: Review and submit
- Error-safe: client details, clinical documents and service details each have their own Edit button, so a mistake is fixed without restarting the form
- A verification switch confirms the traveller's passport is valid for at least 6 months
- The screen logs when the SMS request was sent
See the step 4 screens in the Solution

A dashboard built around clients

On the dashboard, Quick Actions replace the crowded card layout, and one client table shows arrival date, companion status, assigned facility, current phase and destination. Colour bars on the left edge and New, Stalled and Urgent filters let officers gauge pipeline urgency at a glance. Phase names appear as text alongside the colour dots.

To stop clients dropping off silently, testing led to a predictive 48-hour stall alert that resurfaces stuck cases before they go cold, and an Urgent Logistics panel for trips inside a critical 48-hour window.

Accessibility decisions

The audit gave a clear starting point. The design changes below address what it found, and they're one part of a baseline that can be extended, not a claim of full WCAG conformance.

Colour contrast. White text on the original teal reached 3.3:1. Teal AA (#007E85) and Teal AAA (#006166) were added to the brand palette. The original teal stays for large text and decoration.
Tap targets. 48px minimum, above the 24px minimum in WCAG 2.2 AA (2.5.8), for officers and partners working on phones in busy environments.
Plain language. Jargon replaced with plain labels for non-native English speakers.
Status you can read. Phase names, statuses and required fields use text as well as colour.

3.3:1
Original teal #009DA4Fails AA for normal text (needs 4.5:1). Passes AA for large text (needs 3:1).
4.85:1
Teal AA #007E85Passes AA for normal text. Passes AAA for large text.
7.23:1
Teal AAA #006166Passes AAA for normal text (needs 7:1).

WebAIM contrast checks

WebAIM contrast checker: white text on teal #009DA4 gives 3.3 to 1. WCAG AA and AAA fail for normal text. AA passes for large text. — Original teal, #009DA4: 3.3:1. Doesn't meet AA for normal text with white text.

WebAIM contrast checker: white text on Teal AA #007E85 gives 4.85 to 1. AA passes for normal and large text. AAA passes for large text only. — Teal AA, #007E85: 4.85:1. Meets AA.

WebAIM contrast checker: white text on Teal AAA #006166 gives 7.23 to 1. AA and AAA pass for normal and large text. — Teal AAA, #006166: 7.23:1. Meets AAA.

How the redesign responded to the audit

The audit covered more than the intake flow, so some recommendations remain open.

Audit findings and design responses
Heuristic	Severity	Design response	Still open
Error prevention	High	OCR reads passports and medical files at the start, checks passport validity and name matches, flags invalid scans for re-upload.	Blocking outdated records in the upload control for every partner type.
Visibility of system status	High	A current-phase column, New/Stalled/Urgent filters, a 48-hour stall alert, and a logged confirmation when an SMS request is sent.	Pushing real-time status updates to partners by WhatsApp/email through the Cena AI agent.
User control and freedom	High	Independently editable blocks on the review screen.	A self-service revision portal for partners to edit pending cases.
Recognition rather than recall	High	The automated intake message lists what the client needs to upload; the review screen states the passport rule.	Dynamic checklists that change by treatment type and destination country.
Match between system and real world	Medium	A secure SMS upload link meets clients in the messaging channel they already use.	A conversational, concierge-style onboarding.
Flexibility and efficiency of use	Medium	Fetch my client, Import client passport, and a choice of SMS or manual upload.	Bulk upload for agencies and AI summarisation of medical records.
Aesthetic and minimalist design	Low	A decluttered dashboard with Quick Actions and a single client list.	None noted.

Brand colours with the two new accessible teals marked New.

Impact and testing detail

CEO review: Founder and CEO Ryan Marincowitz described the RPNS matching logic as the most ambitious conceptual design thinking he had seen.
User testing: A Lyssna test of the wireframe prototype with 13 participants showed the main friction came before the form, at finding and starting a referral. Navigation, primary action, empty state and required-field cues were changed in response.
Prototype defects: required fields couldn't be completed and some buttons needed multiple clicks.

Other testing observations: The test also covered navigation discoverability and the new OCR and SMS features. Participants understood the difference between sending an SMS request and uploading documents manually. Findings shaped the high-fidelity design.

Limits and next steps

The 78% figure is a projection for a feature that hasn't shipped, not a measured result.

Testing was a single Lyssna test of a wireframe prototype with 13 participants, so the results show the design direction and not live-product performance.
The 78% reduction in manual entry is a projection until the OCR feature ships and can be measured.
The accessibility audit was a desk review. Testing with assistive technology and with people who have disability is the next step.
The open recommendations in the table above are candidates for the next design phase.

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My1Health

Overview

Impact

Challenge

Objective

Researching the problem space

Methods used

Five friction points from the CEO interview

Building user empathy

Four groups rely on the system

How the legacy journey worked

About her

Goals

Frustrations

What she needs from the redesign

1. Choose a service

2. Countries and hospital

3. Client details

4. Attachments

5. Submitted

Design & Prototype

Four design principles

Start on paper

Wireframe, then test

Test & Iterate

What testing showed

The Solution

The officer's journey, redesigned

1. Find the client

2. Medical documents

3. Service and hospital

4. Review and submit

5. Track the case

Project Reflection

Outcome

What I learned

Appendix

Research documents

Stakeholder interview questions

Stakeholder Interview Questions

Part 1: Introduction and background

Part 2: New Partner Onboarding (UC1)

Part 3: Booking Workflow (UC2)

Part 4: Platform adoption, trust and support

Stakeholder interview transcript

Stakeholder Interview Transcript

Introduction

1. Business Overview

Why it was created

Growth and scale

Three operating segments

How the referral segment grew

Key corporate partners

What we provide partners

Global presence

2. Milestones & Goals

3. Markets

Destination countries (where patients travel to)

Source markets (where patients come from)

4. Users & Systems

5. Partner Types & Workflows

Three workflow categories

6. Technical Comfort

7. CRM & Platform Experience

Revenue model context

Key platform issues identified

8. Onboarding Process

Current process

How ongoing communication happens

Verification: Individuals

Verification: Corporates

Automation status

9. Common Onboarding Challenges

New entrants to the industry

Existing medical facilitators

Larger corporates

10. Drop-offs & Rejections

11. Legal & Regulatory Requirements

Country-specific regulation

Destination countries