Preparing for the Next Pandemic: Designing Resilient Information-Sharing Systems in Acute Care

We describe a human-centered design process of creating a centralized digital information hub for information sharing in the emergency department (ED), called E∗Drive. We assessed its usage during the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) and monkeypox (Mpox) pandemics and discuss how to replicate a similar resource.

We recruited an interdisciplinary team of 6 clinicians and designers to build this digital tool with the guiding principles of reliability, agility, and accessibility. We compared average unique page views to our ED's previous clinical guideline system and tracked views alongside COVID-19 and Mpox case counts to assess E∗Drive usage during both pandemics.

Our process simplified complex clinical guidelines into single-page, color-coded workflows that could be updated without specialized technical knowledge. After initial launch during the COVID-19 pandemic, E∗Drive (https://edrive.ucsf.edu) reached more than 61 unique daily users by February 2023. This infrastructure and process enabled proactive dissemination of Mpox resources well before case rates rose. Web traffic for our Mpox guidelines rose as San Francisco became the United States epicenter of Mpox, peaking at 126 unique daily views in a department staffed by 25 to 30 clinicians per day.

By instituting a clear, replicable process for information dissemination and investing in human-centered design during the COVID-19 pandemic, we achieved clinician trust and adoption of a digital information hub. This enabled a more proactive response to the next infectious disease outbreak (Mpox). By using a similar process with off-the-shelf content creation tools, E∗Drive can be adapted to many different ED settings to improve information dissemination without specialized technological expertise.