The Problem
In response to a rapidly changing healthcare environment and growing “physician burnout,” the American Medical Association (AMA) created a series of online educational modules that address common practice challenges. However, physicians and practice owners are presented with huge amounts of information daily - how can we create an experience that cuts through the noise, enabling physicians to leverage this content to address their practice challenges?

The Solution
STEPS Forward™ is an online learning experience that is designed specifically for busy physicians. The trustworthiness of the content is conveyed by affiliation with the AMA and other contributing academic organizations. Modules are categorized and easily sortable. The site even includes a recommendation engine to surface modules based on practice need. The specific benefits of each module are summarized clearly at the top of the module page, with several modules including interactive calculators allowing physicians to easily understand how much time and money the module will save their practice, a feature born out of research findings.The online module content is made digestible through the use of short content bursts, bulleted lists, video, subtle animations and diagram interactivity.

The Results
The site has a 32.5% bounce rate (well below industry average) and a high module engagement level of 69%. Most notable, however, is the 86% of participants who have indicated they are likely to implement STEPS Forward™ learnings, directly supporting the core goal of the initiative.

Physicians who already have engaged in the practice transformation series are also reporting positive changes as a result of this initiative.

"Before, there wasn't enough time in the office visit to get it all done," one physician said.
Another physician noted that using these solutions has led to a rediscovery of the "beauty of reconnecting with my patients."

The STEPS Forward program is a study in user-centric design.

While most physicians go into medicine to spend their time caring for patients, their days are far too often filled with countless frustrations and bureaucratic red tape. A comprehensive health study conducted by AMA and RAND found that these hurdles prevented high-quality care and robbed physicians of their joy of practicing. A phenomenon coined as “physician burnout” affects the majority of healthcare professionals, putting the future of medical practice, and by extension the health of the nation, at risk.

STEPS Forward™ is a collection of interactive online educational modules, developed by physicians for physicians that help address common practice challenges while earning Continuing Medical Education (CME) credit. At its core, STEPS Forward’s goal was to obtain the “Quadruple Aim” — better patient experience, better population health and lower overall costs with improved professional satisfaction.

In order to achieve these ambitious goals, Klick Health was engaged to design the delivery mechanism of AMA-developed module content. Leveraging their expertise in digital design for a healthcare professional audience, Klick’s highly collaborative and empathetic approach to design seamlessly meshed with the AMA team’s goals. Leadership from both Klick and AMA were aligned on a customer-centric design methodology that put the healthcare professional audience at the center of all design decisions.

STEPS Forward™ presented a stark contrast to typical content delivery methods physicians are accustomed to such as talking head videos, clinical data or dry, long-form content with minute font sizes. Developing a deep understanding and genuine empathy towards an HCP’s day-to-day practice challenges enabled Klick to design a solution that impacts practices across the nation. Klick worked very closely with the AMA to uncover the real-life needs of their HCP audience, which led to a program that is truly differentiated among similar offerings in the space, and provided immediate value to HCPs and their office staff.