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Image by Daniel R.

CASE STUDY: CURO

Curo is a conceptual UX content design case study exploring real-time clinical documentation for EMS and flight care. The project focuses on patient-first workflows, voice-assisted capture, and improved hospital handoffs within regulated healthcare systems.

OVERVIEW

Emergency medical professionals operate in high-stakes environments where seconds matter, cognitive load is high, and documentation is both legally required and clinically critical. Yet charting often happens after care is delivered, introducing risk, omissions, and frustration for clinicians and QA teams alike.

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Curo explores a patient-first documentation system designed to capture accurate information as care happens, support seamless hospital handoffs, and align clinical workflows across ground and flight EMS. The project emphasizes content strategy, information architecture, and ethical use of AI within complex healthcare constraints.

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My Role: Content Designer & Strategist
Focus: Content strategy, UX writing, IA, systems thinking
Status: Conceptual, research-informed

WHY "CURO"

From the Latin curo — to care for, to manage, to attend to, to provide for, to cure. This reflects the shared intention of EMS crews, flight teams, hospital staff, and QA professionals: to care for patients through clarity, accuracy, and continuity.

Paramedic Checking Tablet

PROBLEM SPACE

EMS documentation is time-consuming and cognitively taxing Critical details are often reconstructed after care is delivered QA teams spend significant time correcting incomplete or unclear charts Hospitals receive limited or delayed pre-arrival information Ground and flight crews follow similar goals but different workflows Core Tension: How might we reduce documentation burden while improving accuracy, continuity of care, and trust across the system?

Emergency Medical Assistance

GOALS & PRINCIPLES

Patient-first, clinician-supported Capture information at the moment of care Reduce cognitive load, not add screens Preserve clinician review and sign-off Treat content as clinical infrastructure

Rescue Team Helicopter

RESEARCH & DISCOVERY

Inputs considered: QA workflow insights from EMS chart review Industry standards for ePCR and handoffs HIPAA and data minimization principles Differences between ground and flight EMS workflows Key Insight: Documentation is not a post-care task—it is a parallel clinical activity that must adapt to context, environment, and urgency.

Paramedics Assisting Patient

PERSONA & SHARED JOURNEY

Primary Users

  • EMTs (ground care)

  • Flight nurses and flight paramedics

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Secondary Users

  • Hospital triage teams

  • QA and compliance teams

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Shared End-to-End Journey

  1. Call assigned & route optimization

  2. Arrival confirmation

  3. Assessment & triage (assisted capture)

  4. Transport & hospital communication

  5. Arrival & patient transfer

  6. Chart review & clinician sign-off

  7. Documentation lock & QA review

Image by Dion
Image by David Travis

CONTENT STRATEGY

Event-based documentation structure Progressive disclosure by care phase Voice-assisted draft capture Structured data with narrative flexibility Clear content states: draft, reviewed, locked AI Role: Assist, flag, and suggest—never decide or overwrite.

Image by UX Store

IA & TAXONOMY

Top-Level Structure: Active Call Assessment Transport Handoff Chart Review QA & Audit Taxonomy Aligned to Clinical Moments, Not Forms Care Stage: Dispatch, Arrival, Assessment, Transport, Transfer, Review, Final Content Type: Structured Data, Narrative Notes, System-Generated Events, Clinician-Confirmed Entries Confidence Level: Confirmed, Estimated, Unknown Content States: Draft → Reviewed → Final

Image by Glenn Carstens-Peters

UX WRITING & MICROCOPY

Tone Principles: Calm, clear, and confirmatory Minimal alerts, high confidence Action-oriented language Respect clinician judgment Example Microcopy: "Assessment mode active" "Review chart before locking" "Patient transferred — documentation paused" Error & Edge Case Handling: "Some required details are missing. Please review before submitting." "We couldn’t confidently capture this information. Please review."

CONCEPTS & WIREFRAME DIRECTION

  • Minimal interaction during care

  • Large, glanceable confirmations

  • Voice-first, touch-second

  • Designed for pockets, gloves, and noise

  • Event-driven, milestone-based screens

View Wireframes

ROADMAP & IMPLEMENTATION CONSIDERATIONS

Phase 1

Assisted documentation & review

 

Phase 2

Hospital handoff communication

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Phase 3

AI-assisted QA support

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Phase 4

Conditional data enrichment & integrations

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Considerations

  • HIPAA compliance & data minimization

  • Offline/low-connectivity support

  • Training & change management

  • Adaptability across ground and flight workflows

  • Cross-functional collaboration with legal, clinical, and engineering teams

Image by Kyle Bushnell

REFLECTION & LEARNINGS

This project reinforced that content design in healthcare is about reducing risk through clarity, not adding features. Designing for ambiguity, ethical AI use, and real-world constraints shaped every decision.

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Key Learnings

  • Documentation is a clinical act, not an administrative afterthought

  • Automation requires restraint; clinicians remain the source of truth

  • Event-based IA reduces risk and cognitive load

  • Designing for uncertainty leads to resilient systems

  • Next Steps if Continued:

  • Field testing voice capture in high-noise environments

  • Validating review workflows with EMTs and flight crews

  • Refining shared summaries with hospital triage teams

  • Partnering with QA for improved documentation quality

  • Impact: Positions content as clinical infrastructure, improving EMS workflows, patient handoffs, and hospital preparedness.

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