Frida Irina stenlund
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Frida Irina stenlund
 

STRATEGY AND RESEARCH FOR MEDTECH - LAERDAL MEDICAL

The First Breath: UX for Quality Improvement in Newborn Care

Every life begins with a single, critical breath—the first breath. For many newborns, this moment is fragile, requiring rapid and precise medical intervention. The quality of care in these first minutes can mean the difference between life and loss. Over the year working with Laerdal in Stavanger, Norway, I gained insights into clinical care, legislation, and medical product development frameworks.

I contributed to two key projects: developing a data collection tool for remote clinics and assessing the feasibility and onboarding of the award-winning NeoBeat newborn heart rate monitor.

“I led service design workshops with representatives from WHO, UNICEF, and AAP

Focusing on quality improvement in neonatal care and data collection in remote hospitals, I gained valuable insight into how global medical organizations navigate digital transformation, legal challenges, and global politics. I led numerous workshops with healthcare professionals—including clinicians, doctors, and lawyers—using creative, hands-on methods. It was eye-opening to see how they still manage to create user journeys and identify key stakeholders and their needs.

 

🔗Link to Neobeat here

🔗Link to quality improvement training tools here

WORKING WITH A TEAM AT LAERDAL MEDICAL

Midwifes, Grant owners, Product owners, Industrial Designers, UX Designers, Developers, UX Researchers, Data scientists, Mechanical engineers

SKILLS

Antropology and Field studies, Stakeholder management, User journey mapping, Workshop facilitation, Prototyping interractions (physical and digital), Sketch specifications and Sketch prototyping

ROLE

UX Researcher & UX Designer 2017

 

My journey

 

USER RESEARCH & EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF TRAINING TOOLS

-Workshops with the UN, AAP, Doctors and Midwifes to gain insights

 

 

FIELD STUDIES- TANZANIA

-Research for data collection tool used during births for clinical studies, and an evaluation of the NeoBeat Heartrate monitor

BUILDING AN IPAD TOOL

Interaction design - building UX/UI for Ipad layout and testing it out with midwifes during births


 

 

 

Research / Field studies ⬇️

TANZANIA AND AT HQ IN STAVANGER, NORWAY - STUDYING AND SHADOWING CLINICAL CARE PROCEDURES

Founder of Laerdal Medical, Tore Laerdal speaking about the UN Global Goals

Equal to this image, many times I was participating in quality improvement trainings with midwifes, sometimes as observer, sometimes as actor

 

Red soil in Zanzibar, Tanzania. We observed in Hospitals outside Dar es Salaam. Personally, for me this journey was very impactful, and I am humbled by the work of hospital workers in these types of settings.

  • Field Research: Visits to rural Tanzanian hospitals provided invaluable real-world context, helping me understand the unique challenges faced by midwives in low-resource settings.

  • Cross-cultural Communication: I applied my experience in cross-cultural communication to bridge gaps in understanding, ensuring that all stakeholders were aligned on the project’s objectives.

Core Skills Highlighted:

  • User-Centered Research: Deep dive into understanding healthcare users’ needs, specifically those in low-resource settings.

Prototyping ⬇️

  • Iterative Design: I worked closely with developers to design an iPad interface for data collection and training. This tool was tailored to midwives who often cannot read, focusing on simplicity and intuitive use to ensure data accuracy.

  • Testing & Validation: Extensive user feedback loops helped validate the design, making adjustments to enhance usability based on insights from healthcare professionals and field testing.

Core Skills Highlighted:

  • Prototyping & Interaction Design: Designing for simplicity and accessibility, ensuring the product meets real-world challenges.

  • Agile Methodology: Applying an iterative, evidence-based approach to develop and refine the product.

Phase 3: Impact ⬇️

  • Improved Data Collection: The new interface allowed midwives to collect accurate data, significantly reducing errors in birth monitoring and improving the quality of care in hospitals with limited resources.

  • Training & Education: By designing intuitive checklists and training tools, I helped improve the knowledge and capabilities of healthcare workers in challenging environments

  • Global Impact: This project directly contributed to better maternal and neonatal health outcomes in rural Tanzania and similar regions.

Core Skills Highlighted:

  • Impact-Driven Design: My focus was on creating accessible, meaningful, scalable solutions that could be easily implemented in diverse, low-resource environments.

Second project, NeoBeat: Sketching out how to onboard the tool & evaluating the user experience during births

Reflections & Learnings

These projects fitted my unique ability to empathise with diverse user needs, design for complex cross-cultural contexts, and collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to create evidence-based solutions. There are still many things to uncover.

While the data tool was in its early stages and not continued beyond clinical trials, it served as a precursor for future digital training tools for midwives. I’m proud to have contributed to a company with great ambitions, though more attention is needed to drive healthcare digitalisation in low-resource settings and ensure innovation reaches those who need it most.

The product I developed was in it’s very early stages and was not continued, as a part of clinical trial and testing, yet it went on as a pre-cursor for coming initiatives when it comes to developing digital training tools for midwifes, and saving more breaths.