Doctors Under the Radar is an organization that hopes to provide medical personnel with a safe online space where they can share experiences, find support and resources, and build connections to better manage their mental health and the rigors of the job.
Medical professionals are currently suffering from stigma around mental health and lack a safe space to connect with their peers resulting in high rates of burnout and stress. How might we create a safe space where medical professionals can connect with their peers, share resources, and alleviate the symptoms of burnout and stress?
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Therapists visits were the number one cited resource in use, but there is little to offer by way of group connection
When using social platforms users had a hard time forming connections when the group contained more than 5 people
Fear of being found our by peers or supervisors & experiencing backlash against seeking support leads to many medical personnel not even trying
Mental health conversations are only now becoming more prevalent in the healthcare space, as such there is a lack of a central resource space
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While many options exist to help medical professionals practice self care in an individual space, there are few options that seek to replicate the support individuals might get in a group or community setting. This gap in resources suggests that an application focused on replicating the supportive and judgement free space of group therapy in an online form could offer new benefits and advantages to those seeking help and connection.
Building on our research where users were deeply concerned about their identities being shared, we made anonymity the default for signing up for our platform.
Medical professional are guided through an individualized onboarding where they make selections for their profile allowing them to be matched with other users who share the same experiences and interests
As noted in the research, users felt that large groups prevented strong connections. After onboarding, users are matched with up to 6 other users to be their support group or 'huddle'. Each huddle has it's own channel for conversation and resource sharing, but also has access to the larger community as needed.
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Feedback from a first round of testing revealed adjustments that needed to be made in the onboarding process.
This project was heavily research based. Throughout the ideation process it became extremely clear that most of our answers lay in the user interviews conducted.
Since mental health is a sensitive topic, the importance of privacy was immediately made clear. We were very thorough in designing an online platform that implemented robust privacy measures to create a safe and confidential environment.
