Johnson & JohnsonService DesignPatient ExperienceResearchHealthcare
From fragmented touchpoints to
coordinated care
A unified, end-to-end oncology patient support program built from primary research with 65+ patients, caregivers, and clinicians. It changed how people with cancer received care, coordination, and continuity from diagnosis through long-term adherence.
Most patients prescribed an oncolocology treament never fully complete it
Oncology treatment journeys are fragmented across providers, payers, and support programs. Patients and caregivers face high emotional, financial, and logistical complexity at precisely the moments they can least afford it. There's no single coordinating entity, and no early support when they hit a wall.
50%+
of scripts written for patients never get filled
40%
of patients stop therapy within the first four months
30%
of eligible patients aware of available copay support
These weren't awareness problems or UX problems. They were systemic, driven by organizational silos, over-reliance on patients to self-navigate a complex multi-party system, and support programs that existed in isolation from each other.
Due to NDA and confidentiality constraints, some aspects of this work have been simplified or generalized. Sensitive details and full client deliverables have been redacted. Additional details available upon request.
The research pointed a system problem, not a touchpoint problem
Co-creation with Multiple Myeloma and Prostate Cancer patients and their caregivers reframed the challenge entirely. We moved from "how do we improve individual support interactions?" to "how do we design a single, coordinated support experience across the entire treatment journey?"
What Existed
Fragmented, transactional touchpoints
Patient required to self-navigate
Reactive, event-based support
Disconnected digital and human channels
No single coordinating entity
What We Designed
Continuous, relationship-based journey
Guided, coordinated support system
Scheduled early engagement at key transition points
Integrated human and digital experience
Dedicated care navigator as single point of contact
Led end-to-end design research across the Janssen Compass program, structured in three phases.
Phase 1 - Discovery: Designed and facilitated co-creation IDIs with Multiple Myeloma and Prostate Cancer patients and their caregivers. A 968-respondent companion app desirability survey ran in parallel. This phase produced 10 grounded research takeaways that shaped every downstream program decision. Phase 2 - Community Boards - Validation: Facilitated a structured concept validation session with 24 participants (13 MM, 11 PC). Every participant found the Compass program useful. One quote captured a systemic gap more clearly than any data point: "Some of us feel forgotten between appointments."
Phase 3 - HCP IDIs - Validation: Conducted in-depth interviews with oncologists to understand care coordination from the clinical side. They typically spent 20 to 30 minutes per patient per visit, relied heavily on social workers and psychiatrists for support referrals, and were explicit that a dedicated navigator would fill a gap their teams couldn't cover.
Phase 4 - Evaluative + Additional Discovery: Expanded the research to Lung Cancer patients, BIPOC communities, caregivers, and Multiple Myleoma coaches through additional IDI rounds and async engagements. Key learnings from BIPOC participants: Black male patients preferred peer-to-peer and group mentoring formats, and wanted support from professionals with shared lived experience. Caregiver needs were distinct from patient needs and required a separate support track.
Facilitated cross-functional workshops throughout to translate findings into a shared experience vision, service blueprint, and implementation roadmap, bringing together product, marketing, clinical, operations, and vendor teams around a single design direction.
Four principles, derived directly from research, that resolved design trade-offs across the entire program build.
01
Continuity Over Touchpoints
Design for ongoing relationships, not one-off interactions. This drove the dedicated care navigator model, where a single point of continuity travels with the patient from prescription through long-term adherence. Patients told us "being two steps ahead" was the defining quality of support that actually worked.
02
Human and Digital Integration
Use digital for scale; human support for trust and complexity. Technology handled logistics, education, and routine touchpoints at scale. Navigators held emotionally loaded moments, complex decisions, and the continuity layer no app could replicate. Designing the handoff between these layers was central to the service model.
03
Reduce Cognitive and Administrative Burden
Patients navigating cancer care shouldn't also have to navigate systems. This principle drove the navigator owning prior authorization and insurance coordination on behalf of patients, not alongside them. It shaped onboarding and communication design throughout.
04
Design for Moments of Uncertainty
Prioritize support at high-stress transition points. Research identified the access/insurance window and the first 60 days of treatment as the primary drop-off zones. Scheduling early engagement at these moments, before patients hit a wall, was the central design decision.
The Janssen Compass program was designed as a single, coordinated support experience across five oncology brands, with a unified entry point, a dedicated care navigator relationship, and an integrated digital layer.
The Digital Layer
Scalable access and education
Onboarding, education, and logistics handled digitally for scale. A single "front door" experience simplified entry into support services, replacing multiple fragmented programs with one unified entry point and reducing cognitive burden on patients at their most vulnerable.
The Human Layer
Dedicated care navigators
A single consistent navigator from prescription through long-term adherence. Navigators owned prior authorization, insurance coordination, and copay assistance on behalf of patients. They held full journey context across all interactions, so patients never had to re-explain their situation.
Four core artifacts that structured the program design and aligned cross-functional teams around a shared understanding of the problem and the solution.
Artifact 01
Patient Personas
Three research-grounded archetypes covering MM patients (independent information-seeker, community-embedded anchor) and a BIPOC PC patient composite. Built from Phase 1 IDIs and Phase 2 expanded research. Shaped the intake assessment design and navigator call guide personalization.
Artifact 02
Patient Journey Map
End-to-end map across six stages from diagnosis through ongoing adherence. Grounded in co-creation research with 22 MM & PC patients. Identified emotional arc, systemic pain points, and the two primary drop-off windows that shaped the entire program architecture.
Artifact 03
Service Blueprint
Mapped patient-facing interactions alongside backstage operations, systems, and workflows across five oncology brands. Identified breakdowns between digital, call center, and clinical processes, exposed redundancies, and enabled implementation planning across teams and vendors.
Artifact 04
Ecosystem Map
Visualized the full ecosystem of actors (patients, caregivers, HCPs, payers, specialty pharmacies, and support programs) and their relationships. Revealed fragmentation driven by organizational silos, and informed where to centralize vs. integrate.
MVP launched June 2021, six months from kick-off. After launch, the program expanded to cover five Janssen oncology brands and subsequently evolved into the broader J&J WithMe platform.
Treatment Adherence
Improved treatment initiation and early adherence through navigator-led engagement at the drop-off windows, directly targeting the window where 40% of patients historically stopped therapy. Post-MVP research informed a service optimization strategy with four evidence-based improvements focused on extending duration of therapy.
Access & Enrollment
Navigator-led prior authorization and copay assistance coordination addressed the 50%+ script non-fill rate. Virtually all Community Board 2 participants (n=19) said they would sign up when introduced by their HCP, validating the physician-led enrollment model.
Strategic Shift
Shifted Janssen Oncology's positioning from product-centric to service-led, a meaningful differentiation in a crowded oncology support market. The journey mapping and service blueprint frameworks built for Compass became the foundation for the J&J WithMe platform across therapeutic areas.
"It would be like a partner, a partner in my care — that's not only a person, but someone who can bring me the resources. If I have the right navigator, I won't feel like I have to do as much of the research and that sort of thing." - Jack, Prostate Cancer patient · Janssen Compass co-creation research, 2021
Three of the personas that were built from 65+ participants across all the research phases. The personas drove the intake assessment design, navigator call guide personalization, caregiver support, and the BIPOC-specific program optimizations.
Adults aged 40–71+ diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma or Prostate Cancer, many on 3rd or 4th line of treatment, living with disease rather than curing it
Start and stay on therapy without losing financial stability, quality of life, or sense of control in a system with no single entity coordinating their care
Patients disengage immediately if support doesn't feel tailored to them. The intake assessment became a design-critical moment, not an administrative step
End-to-end mapping of the patient experience across six stages, from diagnosis shock through long-term adherence. Grounded in co-creation research with 65+ participants across research phases, synthesized into six design decisions that shaped the program.
EMOTIONAL ARC - PATIENT EXPERIENCE ACROSS THE PROGRAM
JOURNEY STAGES - PATIENT EXPERIENCE IN DETAIL
Stage 01 · Day 0 – 2 weeks
Diagnosis & Overwhelm
High distress, low orientation
Understand the diagnosis
Find a path forward
Feel less alone
Receives diagnosis, tells family
Searches online, joins communities
Processes emotionally, seeks second opinion
OncologistOnline searchPatient forumsFamily
No roadmap, no warm handoff. Patients hit information overload from unreliable online sources with no structured entry point to support.
Early outreach at point of prescription. Single front door to all support programs. Warm introduction to care navigator model.
Dosing complexity, fear of mistakes, and uncertainty about who to call. Fragmented onboarding across multiple programs made this worse.
Simplified onboarding: one entry point. First-dose check-in call from navigator. Side effect education delivered early, at initiation.
Stage 05 · Days 1–60
Early Management
⚠ Second drop-off window (40% stop here)
Manage side effects without alarm
Maintain daily routine
Stay on treatment
Takes daily medication
Monitors and logs side effects
Attends follow-up appointments
Contacts support when unsure
Care navigatorDigital portalOncology teamCaregiver
Unexpected side effects with no framework for what's "normal" vs. urgent. Work and life disruption. Having to re-explain the situation to every new contact.
Scheduled navigator check-ins, ahead of need. Clear escalation path to clinical team. Navigator holds full journey context, so patients never re-explain.
Long-term treatment fatigue, cost burden re-emerging at refill milestones, and relapse anxiety in a disease with no clear cure narrative.
Refill reminders and logistics support. Navigator relationship sustained over time. Milestone recognition. New vocabulary for living with chronic cancer.
MOMENTS OF TRUTH
Stage 03 — Access & Insurance
50%+
The Script That Never Gets Filled
Over half of scripts written for patients never get filled. Only 30% of eligible patients were aware of the copay support available to them. The prior auth and specialty pharmacy process, managed entirely by patients with no coordinator, is the most preventable failure point in the journey.
Stage 04–05 — Initiation & Early Management
40%
The First Four Months
40% of patients stop therapy within the first four months, driven primarily by affordability, unexpected side effects, and absence of early support. Research showed patients hit a wall with no framework for what's "normal" vs. what needs escalation. The navigator model was built to hold this window.
Stage 06 — Ongoing Adherence
∞
The Chronic Disease Paradox
MM and PC patients live in a gray area between cure and death, a space clinical teams are often vague about. Patients who see treatment as a marathon manage better than those who see it as a sprint. Compass redesigned program language and support structure from event-based to relationship-based to sustain this long haul.
FROM RESEARCH TO DESIGN
Six program decisions, each traced directly to a research takeaway from the co-creation and survey work.
1
Guided intake assessment
Takeaway 03: patients have a reflexive response to anything that doesn't feel tailored to them. A structured needs assessment at enrollment, segmenting by journey stage, treatment experience, and support type, became the design-critical first interaction before the first navigator call.
2
Navigator owns access
Over 50% of scripts never filled; only 30% aware of cost support. The navigator's role was redesigned from passive resource-provider to active coordinator, owning prior auth, specialty pharmacy enrollment, and copay assistance on behalf of the patient.
3
Single navigator relationship
Takeaway 01: confidence is built through continuity, not volume of information. One consistent navigator from prescription through long-term adherence directly addressed the trust gap. Patients no longer had to re-explain their situation or wonder about ulterior motives.
4
Early first-dose engagement
40% stop within four months. Takeaways 05 and 09 drove a first-dose check-in call and scheduled outreach in the first 60 days, before patients hit walls. The navigator model was designed to "be two steps ahead," a phrase that came directly from patients in co-creation.
5
Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation
Takeaway 08: motivation isn't one thing. MM patients needed treatment-specific emotional support; PC patients needed long-term life management tools. Navigator call guides were redesigned to diagnose motivation type first, then match support to it, rather than delivering a generic script.
6
New language for chronic cancer
Takeaway 05: there's no shared vocabulary for the space between cure and death. Compass replaced "fighting cancer" framing with chronic management language, supporting patients in seeing treatment as a marathon. This reshaped navigator training, call guides, and all written materials.
Mapped patient-facing interactions alongside backstage operations, systems, and workflows across the J&J oncology product ecosystem. Identified breakdowns between digital, call center, and clinical processes and enabled implementation planning across teams and vendors.
SERVICE BLUEPRINT - SIMPLIFIED FOR PORTFOLIO PURPOSES
Shows patient actions, navigator responsibilities, digital systems, and operational support across program stages, and the line of visibility that separates what patients experience from what runs backstage.
Lane
Enrollment
Access & Onboarding
Active Treatment
Long-term Adherence
Patient Actions
Receives program introduction from HCP. Calls enrollment line or submits online form. Completes intake assessment.
Receives welcome call from assigned navigator. Reviews education content. Awaits insurance and PA outcome.
Takes medication. Logs side effects. Contacts navigator with questions. Attends HCP follow-ups.
Receives refill reminders. Periodic check-ins with navigator. Adjusts support needs over time.
Line of Visibility
Patient-facing above ↑ ↓ Backstage below
Navigator Actions
Reviews intake assessment. Prepares welcome call based on patient profile and disease state.
Owns prior auth process. Coordinates specialty pharmacy enrollment. Submits copay assistance on behalf of patient. Provides status updates.
Scheduled outreach at Day 1, Day 7, Day 30. Documents patient history. Escalates clinical concerns to HCP team.
Adherence reporting to brand team. Program optimization reviews. Navigator performance and caseload management.
Full service blueprint not shown due to NDA. Sensitive system names, vendor identities, proprietary process logic, and implementation-specific detail have been removed. This version is simplified for portfolio purposes.
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