HIPO
Humanizing medicine through trust and complicity in Colombia's healthcare reality
Project overview
HIPO is a digital eHealth and mHealth service designed to humanize medical care within the Colombian healthcare system.
The humanization of medicine has gradually been reframed as a “reward” rather than recognized as an inherent quality of medical practice. As a result, its systemic absence has contributed to a widespread disappointment among patients, healthcare professionals, and institutions—weakening trust in the healthcare system as a whole.
Grounded in this reality and acknowledging the structural limitations of the Colombian healthcare context, this project set out to explore new forms of synergy among frontline users within the medical ecosystem. Its goal was to enable conditions in which humanization could re-emerge not as an exception, but as a lived and sustained practice embedded in everyday care.
Domain: Service Design | Design Research | Healthcare
Organization
Los Andes University | Capstone Project
Role
Lead Service Designer
Location
Bogotá, Colombia
Duration
6 months
Digital product identity + Educational feature in the mHealth platform for patients.
Design intent
Improve the overall quality and continuity of care by designing medical experiences that address not only clinical needs, but also emotional, relational, and contextual dimensions of health.
Enable more dignified patient–provider relationships by reframing patients as active participants in care, rather than passive records within the system.
Support healthcare professionals in engaging empathetically with patients by designing interactions and services that allow care, comfort, and connection to coexist with clinical rigor.
Linking the patient's support network to the comprehensive support of their process
My role
I led the project end-to-end, acting as the sole service designer and researcher. My responsibilities spanned the full design lifecycle—from exploratory research and insight synthesis to service strategy, validation, and prototyping.
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Conducted qualitative research with 15+ patients, physicians, nurses, and medical students to understand the emotional, relational, and systemic dimensions of medical care.
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Definition of core design principles, the development of the service concept, and an initial business model for the digital solution.
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Designed the service architecture, brand, user journeys, and interaction logic for both patients and healthcare professionals..
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Validated and prototyped with real users, allowing insights from real experiences to shape the evolution of the service.
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Throughout the project, I approached healthcare as a complex system—balancing human vulnerability, professional responsibility, and institutional constraints—using design as a tool to restore human connection at the core of care.
There is very little we can actually cure, but we must always accompany. That is where healing begins.
Natalia, 51
Nephrologist
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Shared goals feature between patients and doctors
Key insights
The starting point was both urgent and structural.
Choosing between being a doctor of the body or of the soul is a constant dilemma for physicians. Yet in many situations, that decision has already been made for them..
Becoming ill often translates into an additional illness in itself—one that acts like a pathogen, sweeping through and eroding everything a person is beyond their condition.
When success means different things to each actor, the journey becomes individual, limiting not just shared decisions, but shared vulnerability.
Project outcome
At the heart of HIPO is an intentional matching model between patients and physicians, based on a holistic understanding of both users as individuals before roles
Trust
Generating a feeling of support, reciprocity, effective communication and having a safe space.
Complicity
Enabling a true partnership based in honesty and empathy in every interaction.
Through comprehensive personal profiling—using the Myers-Briggs personality framework as an initial heuristic—the service seeks to recognize emotional, contextual, and relational dimensions often overlooked in clinical settings. By reducing the emotional distance that traditionally characterizes medical encounters, HIPO creates fertile ground for empathy, trust, and shared goals.
HIPO Triage
Shared victories
Rather than framing care as a transactional interaction, the service supports patient and physician as a collaborative dyad navigating diagnosis, treatment, and healing together. These features enrich the experience not only during treatment, but also beyond discharge.