I established the first telemental health clinic in a national health care system for veterans and designed the study that tested whether its care worked.
From 2011 to 2012 I worked as a research scientist on a team that studied health technology for veterans' mental health care. I tested personal health records, mobile apps, web apps, and telemedicine clinics, opened the system's first telemental health clinic, and then co-wrote a textbook chapter on the video technology behind remote care.
Client
A national health care system for veterans
I changed names and details to respect my nondisclosure agreements.
My role
Research scientist and product researcher
Focus
Telehealth tools and a telemental health clinic
Result
The system's first telemental health clinic opened
Video care was moving from fixed studio rooms to ordinary computers, and every clinic had to decide what to trust.
In 2011 I joined a research team at a medical center in a national health care system for veterans. The team studied whether health care technologies helped people with their mental health. Clinicians on the team focused on the clinical side of the research, and I focused on the technology research and design.
Video care was changing fast. For years, video visits had been tied to specific networks, rooms, and computers. New desktop video software ran on ordinary personal computers, and providers wanted reliable, easy video they could use anywhere. Each new option asked the organization to weigh its own needs, the product's capabilities, and the risks of a new way to talk about health.
Mental health care raised the stakes. A session that drops or exposes private details costs more than a lost business call, so the clinic needed a plan for privacy and a plan for failure before the first patient sat down. Those two plans later earned their own sections in the chapter I co-wrote.
I tested five kinds of health technology against four questions.
My research covered electronic personal health records, mobile phone apps, web apps, desktop software, and telemedicine clinics. For each one, I designed and ran studies around the same four questions, so the team could compare very different tools on equal terms. Click or tap a card to turn it over.
I placed the patient end of the first clinic in a secure facility outside the health system.
Telemental health connects a clinician and a patient through live video. In the first clinic I established, the patient end of the video connection sat in a secure facility that the health system did not run, so care could reach patients outside the system's own buildings.
I also designed the study that evaluated the clinic on two fronts: whether the care was effective, and whether the program design held up. A study designed alongside the clinic gave the team a way to show the clinic's value instead of asking people to take that value on faith.
Setting up a clinic like this one raises the same questions for any video care team. Those questions became the backbone of the textbook chapter I co-wrote.
- Is the room at the patient end private and secure?
- Does the video product fit the bandwidth at both ends of the call?
- Is the sound clear enough for a mental health conversation?
- Does patient privacy hold across every network and device in the call?
- What does the team do in the moment the video fails?
- How will the study measure both the care and the program design?
Get ready for a video visit, join it, and see the backup plan take over.
The clinic I opened ran on the video tools of 2011. I rebuilt the patient side of a video visit as a clickable concept under the fictional Haven Telehealth name, with AI writing the code from my research. Every check in the flow comes from the questions in my chapter, and the survey at the end asks the four questions I used in my studies.
Things to try
- Choose Get ready for your visit and check that your room is private.
- Test your camera, your sound, and your connection, one step at a time.
- Pick a backup plan, join the visit, and choose Drop video to watch the plan take over.
- End the visit and answer the four questions about ease, help, comfort, and choice.
Harbor blue, warm paper, and a calm serif keep a private moment steady.
I styled the visit for people who may be anxious before a counseling session: a deep harbor blue for structure and actions, an amber accent for guidance and the crisis note, and warm paper instead of clinical white. A serif sets the titles and a plain government-style sans sets everything else, and every text color passes current contrast standards.
Color
- Harbor
#1F4E5FThe top bar, primary buttons, and the next visit card - Deep harbor
#153844Button hover states - Mist
#E6EFF0Selected choices and secondary hover states - Amber
#8A4B12Eyebrows, the crisis note, and fixes to try - Calm green
#1E6B45Passed checks and the microphone meter - Ink
#16252BTitles and body text - Warm paper
#F5F3EEThe page background
Type
Titles
Find a private place to talk.
Source Serif 4
Labels
Step 1 of 4 · Your space
Public Sans
Body
Every video system fails at some point.
Public Sans
Components
Visit readiness steps
Four short steps check the room, the camera and sound, the connection, and the backup plan before the visit starts.
Privacy checklist
Large checkboxes name each condition for a private session, and the Continue button waits until all three are checked.
Backup plan choice
Two clear options decide what happens when video fails, and the visit screen carries out the choice.
Video visit controls
Large round buttons with text labels handle mute, camera, and ending the visit, and a privacy badge stays in view.
Four-question survey
Five large, labeled choices per statement work by touch or keyboard, and an open question collects the details.
Principles
- Check the room before the camera, because privacy comes first in a counseling visit.
- Treat sound as its own check, because a missed word costs more than a frozen picture.
- Plan for failure before the visit starts, so a dropped call never ends the care.
- Keep the crisis line on the home screen, so nobody has to wait for an appointment to get help.
I turned what I learned into a textbook chapter on video technology for mental health care.
In 2013 I was a contributing author and assistant editor of a clinical textbook on telemental health. The chapter I co-wrote with two colleagues explains video care technology so that providers can assess their needs, compare products, and plan for risks. Click or tap a card to turn it over.
1st
telemental health clinic in the health system, which I established
The work left a working clinic, a study of its care, and a chapter that teaches other clinics.
I report what the work produced rather than outcome numbers. Click or tap a card to turn it over.
I bring the same human factors training to teams building tools for people under stress.
My master's degree is in human factors and systems engineering, and this clinic put that training to work where the stakes were personal. As a principal designer offering AI-native product research and design, I help health, government, and other high-stakes teams test their tools with the people who depend on them, measure usability, effectiveness, satisfaction, and acceptability, and plan for the moment the technology fails. If your team is building remote care, I would be glad to talk with you.
There is plenty more where this came from.
Names, brands, and data in my case studies are changed to protect my clients.
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