A Groundbreaking Digital Platform Redefining the Medical Field

The Background

The Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, formerly the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC), #1 Rehabilitation Hospital in the U.S. since 1991, is one of the most innovative care facilities in the world and is the global source of science-driven breakthroughs in Human Ability. It is the first-ever “translational” research hospital where clinicians, scientists, innovators, technologists and patients work together in the same space 24/7, discovering new approaches and applying research in real time.

With their groundbreaking, agile approach to rehabilitation medicine, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab is changing the concepts, expectations, and the very vernacular of treatment. They began with a physical facility that could properly accommodate and facilitate this new approach to recovery, and they wanted to work with a digital agency that was as intent on meeting users’ needs as they were in meeting patients’ needs.

Answering to a Diverse Audience

An even greater challenge was the diversity of the audiences this unified platform needed to address. From patients to government to the international community, each had a different level of literacy and understanding of the subject matter. We needed to make sure each segment felt spoken to and spoken for while maintaining the integrity of their needs. The site needed to be relevant to patients and their families at every stage of their personal journey, providing relevant content at the right moments. It needed to grow with the patient’s own understanding and needs during their recovery.

Personalization was the optimal way of addressing the needs of so many audiences, and the medical organization challenged Code and Theory to approach personalization in an innovative way, doing what was right for the different user groups. Driving personalization would be difficult with this number of audience groups—it would have to be user-generated, making for a non-passive approach to personalization.

Giving a Face to Patient Care

Prior to the redesign, only some of the doctors on staff had public profiles. Yet many patients remarked how they developed close relationships with their therapists and research teams, highlighting their importance in the patients’ recovery.

Maximizing Patient Recovery Continued

The website now complements the physical experience of the new hospital, aiding in the goal of maximizing patient recovery. Every feature built into the new digital experience is in the name of not just facilitating patient care but expediting recovery.

The spring 2017 opening of the new hospital was officially coupled with the perfect digital companion.