Overview
Role
Lead Product Designer
Scope
End-to-end product strategy
UI Design
UX Research
UX Design
Supported Clinical Systems
EMIS Web, SystemOne, Vision, Medicus
ScriptSwitch Prescribing is the UK’s leading prescribing decision support software. It operates across primary care in England, Scotland, and Wales, covering over 31 million patients across 5,000+ GP practices and 130+ Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) and Health Boards.
The platform generates over £11M in annual revenue while delivering over £62M in annual net savings to the NHS through safer, cost-effective prescribing decision support at the point of care.
The Opportunity
ScriptSwitch functions as a real-time clinical intervention engine embedded directly into major Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems (EMIS Web, TPP SystmOne, and INPS Vision) via partner APIs. The product consists of two primary ecosystems:
The GP Prescribing Pop-Up (Point-of-Care Modal)
Intercepts prescribing workflows the moment a clinician enters a prescription. It evaluates drug, dosage, quantity, patient age, gender, lab results (e.g., eGFR), and medication history to suggest lower-cost bioequivalent generics, dosage optimizations, quantity limits, or safety alerts.
Content Manager (CM)
An enterprise web portal where NHS Clinical Pharmacists and Medicines Management Teams (MMTs) author, review, resolve clashes in, and deploy localized formulary rules to GP practice networks within an hour.
The Strategic Goal
Transform point-of-care decision support from an intrusive cost-cutting modal into a trusted, unbiased clinical co-pilot. Deliver real-time safety and savings recommendations without disrupting GP consultation speed, giving regional NHS trusts an enterprise platform to author, resolve clashes in, and deploy localized prescribing rules in minutes.
Deep-Dive User Research & Field Discovery
To ground the redesign in genuine clinical workflows, an extensive qualitative and quantitative field research initiative was conducted across NHS surgeries and Health Boards in England, Scotland, and Wales.
Clinician Autonomy & Button Bias
Early testing showed that making "Accept Replacement" visually dominant while muting "Continue with Original" alienated GPs. Clinicians perceived the software as prioritizing financial savings over patient safety.
Price Transparency Builds Trust
Removing absolute drug prices in favor of a single net savings figure backfired. Prescribers noted that seeing the original price versus the replacement price was essential for evaluating value and explaining changes to patients
Publishing Risk in Content Manager
MMTs lacked a way to test how authored text, formatting, and placeholders would look on a GP's screen before deployment, leading to truncated messages and formatting errors at point of care
Designing the Experience
The Pop-Up modal was re-engineered to maximize legibility, eliminate button bias, and deliver targeted clinical reasoning without adding consultation time.
Unbiasing the Primary Action Buttons
Problem: In early prototypes, Accept Replacement was styled as a primary action button while Continue with Original was secondary. Prescribers felt nudged into accepting switches.
Solution: Both buttons were given equal visual hierarchy, neutral styling, and placement.
Validation: 100% (6/6) of tested GPs immediately noticed Continue with Original, and prescribers reported higher confidence in exercising clinical overrides when appropriate.
Restoring Full Price Transparency
Problem: Showing only a "Cost Benefit" figure reduced trust. Prescribers stated: "People don't believe a figure just saying cost benefit...you want to see the underlying price."
Solution: Re-introduced explicit Est. Cost labels above both the original prescribed drug and the proposed replacement, alongside the calculated
Targeted Switch Content
Problem: Generic switch recommendations appeared for patients regardless of their underlying clinical status, leading to alert fatigue or unsafe recommendations for high-risk patient cohorts
Solution: Integrated real-time diagnosis history to trigger patient-specific recommendations, displaying a dedicated 'Targeted Switch' badge so prescribers immediately recognize the clinical-code rationale.
To move beyond financial switches and actively prevent hospital admissions, ScriptSwitch integrated the national PINCER and PINCER+ clinical indicators.
Targeted Switch Content
Patient Record Trigger
When a clinician opens a patient's chart, ScriptSwitch queries encrypted local data against 13+ PINCER indicators.
Categorized Severity:
Red, Amber or Blue depending on severity
Architecting Content Manager 3
While the Pop-Up manages point-of-care decisions, Content Manager 3 (CM3) provides the enterprise web portal where pharmacists build and deploy rules.
Real-Time Pop-Up Previewer
Integrated an inline rendering modal that allows MMTs to preview exactly how justification text, formatting, hyperlinks, and replacement options will look on a GP's screen before publishing.
Clash Resolver Engine
Removing absolute drug prices in favor of a single net savings figure backfired. Prescribers noted that seeing the original price versus the replacement price was essential for evaluating value and explaining changes to patients.
Selective Rule Suspension
Allows MMTs to temporarily suspend rules during national drug shortages without deleting historical clinical justifications.
Business & Clinical Impact
31M+
Patients Covered
Deployed across 31+ million patients and 5,000+ GP practices, covering 100% of Scotland and Wales and >41% of England.
£62M+
Direct NHS Cost Reduction
Delivered over £62 million in annual prescribing cost savings back to the NHS
41%
avg
Acceptance Rate
Typically ranging between 20% and 52% across different NHS boards in the UK