Patients don't search the way engineers assume they do. They type a symptom, a neighbourhood, a language they're comfortable in — and they expect the right clinic to be near the top. Building for that reality meant rethinking what a directory search should rank.
Why it matters
A directory earns its keep in the quiet moments — when a patient finds the right specialist on the first try, or a clinic never has to field a call meant for the practice that moved out two years ago. Getting there is less about clever features and more about relentless accuracy.
We don't measure success in profiles created. We measure it in the patients who found the right care.
How we approached it
We started from the failure cases and worked backward. Every design choice had to answer one question: does this make the data more trustworthy tomorrow than it is today?
- Verify once, then re-check automatically on a rolling schedule.
- Surface problems before patients ever see them.
- Keep everything exportable — no lock-in, no black boxes.
None of this is glamorous, and that's rather the point. The best directory is the one you never have to think about because it's simply right.
Yuki Tanaka
Head of Product