Check-In Check-Up: Analyzing and Improving Pre-Appointment Engagement in a Primary Care Clinic at UVA Health System; Digital Accessibility and Its Influence on Equitable Healthcare Access

As healthcare systems increasingly digitize, poor design in patient-facing technologies lowers patient engagement, creates barriers to equitable access, and causes healthcare providers to compensate for these shortcomings. My capstone project focused on improving pre-appointment engagement through two pre-visit tasks: eCheck-In and the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit (AWV) Questionnaire. High pre-appointment engagement is important for creating personalized and efficient appointments. Through analysis of pre-collected data and self-selected Qualtrics surveys, my team discovered the benefits of personalized strategies like conditional batch messaging and volunteer-led education programs. My socio-technical research paper explored the need for accessibility and inclusivity in digital healthcare platforms, particularly for disabled and older patients. Through the lens of the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) framework, this paper examines a case study (Bone v. University of North Carolina Health Care System) to analyze the impact of digital inaccessibility on healthcare for disabled users.