An iOS concept that helps unpaid family caregivers navigate prescription costs, coverage, and alternatives for aging loved ones.
There are over 46.2 million adults aged 65+ in the U.S. today, a number expected to nearly double by 2060 — and 92% of them live with at least one chronic condition. While the pharmacy experience for seniors has been the subject of 50+ studies and products, almost nothing had improved the experience for their 40.4 million unpaid caregivers. In October 2018, Premera sponsored five parallel capstone challenges at the University of Washington to find an opportunity here in three months; I led one of them as Smart RX.
The team — Augustus Arthur, Surabhi Wadhwa and I — ran secondary research, semi-structured interviews, a competitive scan (PillPack, GoodRx), and posted directly into caregiver communities on AgingCare and the Caregiver Action Network, gathering 17 responses and 12 follow-up interviews. I also designed "Carebook," a cultural-probe booklet asking caregivers to draw themselves and their loved one and complete prompts like "I care because…" — surfacing the emotional weight behind the logistics.
Caregivers often don't know cheaper or more suitable medication alternatives exist.
Pricing for the same medication varies by pharmacy, invisibly.
Insurance coverage is often only discovered at the pharmacy counter, too late.
I set three design principles — simple, intuitive, reliable — reflecting how much stress caregivers already carry. From 90 concepts generated via Crazy 8's and a 2×2, and narrowed with a six-thinking-hats exercise and decision matrix, the team down-selected to a "Custom Prescriptions" concept: transparent, personalized alternatives to a prescribed medication, scoped to cases where a generic swap is physician-approved.
Only physician-approved generic swaps are shown, and coverage is checked here — not at the counter.
Low-fi testing with 7 UW Medicine caregivers and patients validated the flow as "straightforward... definitely better than the phone call," while surfacing gaps — generic drug names for clarity, and easy access to prior pharmacy history for refills. After presenting the high-fidelity, modular version to Premera leadership, I chose to redesign the interface again on my own initiative to make it more engaging and distinct — because caregivers carrying this much deserve the best.
Caregivers are routinely asked to make high-stakes, on-demand medication decisions without the coverage information or alternatives they need to make them well. Smart RX was my attempt to close that gap with transparency instead of more complexity — and a reminder that the U.S. healthcare system, spread across 318K+ health apps, still hasn't solved for the people caring for the people it's meant to serve.
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