Prithvi Raj - PIM — Product Information Management for Medical Device

PIM
Product Information Management for Medical Devices

Designing a national product information service for safer, faster and more reliable medical device decisions.

A service design and UX case study for DHSC’s Product Information Management platform, helping NHS and health-sector users find, assess, request and consume reliable medical device data.

My Role -
Lead Service Designer / Lead UX Designer

➜ Service design,
➜ User research synthesis,
➜ Journey mapping,
➜ Service blueprinting & ecosystem mapping,
➜ GDS alignment,
➜ Accessibility review,
➜ Prototype iteration,
➜ API journey design,
➜ Backlog shaping.

Challenge

Medical device information exists, but it is fragmented, incomplete and hard to trust

Medical device information was spread across MHRA systems, manufacturer spreadsheets, procurement records, PAQ forms, catalogues, emails and local NHS systems. NHS users often had to chase suppliers or search multiple places before making procurement, safety, servicing or catalogue decisions.

Evidence:

➜ 91% reported increased time spent finding information

➜ 70% reported delays between requesting and receiving information

➜ 55.2% reported patient safety risk from poor access to device information

NOTE: These issues were identified in the data consumer survey.

Users and ecosystem

A multi-sided service ecosystem

PIM was designed for more than one type of user. Some users needed to find and view product information through a digital interface. Some needed to provide, correct or maintain device data. Others needed to integrate PIM data into their own systems through APIs, downloads or bulk extraction.

Research insights

What we learned

Insight 1:
Users could not rely on one source of truth

Data was scattered across catalogues, spreadsheets, emails and local systems.

Insight 2:
Completeness and trust were major barriers

The data quality assessment found issues such as missing relationships, duplicate product challenges, inconsistent status values and limited UDI coverage. Only 30% of registered devices contained a UDI number.

Insight 3:
Manufacturers had richer data, but low incentive to repeat work

Manufacturers faced duplicate requests, routing issues, repeated procurement questions and the burden of confirming whether data was correct or up to date.

Insight 4:
Users needed more than search

They needed search, browse, filters, product details, downloads, API access, missing data requests and incorrect data reporting.

As-is journey

The current journey was manual and repetitive

NHS users often searched internal systems first. If information was missing, they contacted manufacturers through email,
PAQ forms or phone. Manufacturers then had to route the request internally, gather data, get sign-off and send it back
in inconsistent formats.

Service design opportunity

How might we make medical device data easier to find, trust, improve and reuse?

Goal 1:
Find data faster

Search, filters, and GMDN browse helped users find relevant devices through multiple routes, including product name, manufacturer, UDI-DI, product code and device category. This reduced reliance on scattered catalogues, spreadsheets and internal systems.

Goal 2:
Build trust

Source, status, missing data and update history helped users understand how reliable the information was. This made it clearer whether data was available, requested, updated, missing or potentially out of date.

Goal 3:
Improve data quality

Requesting missing data and flagging incorrect data created a structured feedback loop between NHS users and manufacturers. Users could raise gaps or errors directly from the product page instead of relying on manual email chains.

Goal 4:
Reuse data at scale

Downloads and API access supported users who needed to reuse PIM data in catalogues, procurement systems, asset-management tools or analysis workflows. This positioned PIM as both a service interface and a reusable data source.