I led user research and product strategy for the Epocrates Provider Directory — transforming a low-engagement data dump into a smart referral tool by uncovering how physicians actually make referral decisions. The research reframed the product's entire value proposition.
Epocrates had access to a registry of all U.S. physicians (MDs and DOs) based on publicly available data — but the directory had been quickly tacked onto the mobile app with minimal design investment. Usage was low and there was little incentive for providers to engage with it. The data itself was unreliable and incomplete since it was based on public records.
The business wanted to turn this underperforming asset into a service that would increase engagement and time spent in the app. But no one had asked the fundamental question: what would actually make physicians want to use a provider directory?
The business hypothesis was that physicians would use the directory to look up other providers when making referrals. I led interviews with 8 healthcare providers — 90-minute semi-structured sessions with sacrificial concepts and structured activities — to understand how referrals actually work in practice.
The findings reframed the problem entirely. Physicians mostly refer within their own healthcare system to maintain care continuity and access to patient notes. When they do refer outside their network, it requires significant detective work — and they often resort to Google or Yelp, just like their patients, scanning for bedside manner, wait times, and office staff behavior.
I translated the research into a framework of seven questions physicians ask when making a referral: Will I get their notes? Can I trust them? Can they help my patient? Will they see my patient? Can my patient get to them? Can they see my patient soon? Will my patient relate to them? Each question mapped to specific data and technology that could answer it — creating a clear product roadmap grounded in real clinical workflows.
Rather than simply improving the existing directory UI, I recommended a fundamental shift. First, leverage athenahealth's EHR integration to automatically use patient data (insurance, location) as inputs for smart referral recommendations — making the tool contextually useful at the point of care. Second, expand beyond MDs and DOs to include the providers physicians actually need to refer to: psychologists, physical therapists, and institutions. Third, enrich the directory with additional data sources like experience data from insurance claims and patient reviews.
The recommendations were incorporated into a broader effort to reimagine the end-to-end Epocrates mobile experience. I designed an MVP that delivered immediate value while phasing in the more ambitious features — EHR-powered smart matching, enriched provider profiles with experience data and reviews — as a future roadmap.
Research findings fundamentally changed the product direction — from improving a static directory to building a context-aware referral tool integrated with clinical workflows.
The referral decision framework became the foundation for a phased product roadmap, aligning design investments with the questions physicians actually ask when making referral decisions.
The recommendations were adopted into the broader redesign of the Epocrates mobile experience, influencing product strategy beyond the original directory scope.