From Prototype to Platform: The Story of Ultrasound

Ultrasound is a digital platform that simplifies surgical scheduling and hospital workflows—improving efficiency, saving time, and enhancing the patient experience. Learn more at www.ultrasound.africa.

It started with a theatre list and a few too many phone calls.

“There was one facility,” Aimee recalls. “We were in the room mapping their daily frustrations last-minute bookings, lost slots, no real visibility. It wasn’t just clunky. It was costing time, money, and trust.”

So the Kaleidoscope team did what they do best: they mapped the process, identified the friction, and built a solution. Fast.

The first version of what is now Ultrasound was crafted using Airtable, Zapier, and Wix, an off-the-shelf, low-code setup that let them move quickly and iterate weekly.

“Was it perfect? No,” says Aimee. “But it worked. It gave us a real-world test case. And more importantly, it gave us feedback.”

Co-Creation from Day One

From the outset, Ultrasound was built with users. Clients sat in on demos, offered feature suggestions, and flagged issues that impacted their daily work.“

When Betty brought the tool to a second site, we suddenly had more input, more voices, more needs,” Aimee explains. “And that changed everything. We had to make it scalable. We had to make it smarter.”

So the team leaned into Kaleidoscope’s service design DNA. Weekly retrospectives with clients became the heartbeat of the build. Insights were prioritised. Features were shaped around real usage, not assumptions.

Cancellations. Multi-view calendars. Print layouts. Usage dashboards. Every one of these features was sparked by a conversation with a doctor, a theatre manager, or a bookings team.

“We never sat in a room and guessed,” Aimee says. “We built what they needed and we changed it when we had to.” Three Clients. One Platform.

Ultrasound isn’t just for hospitals. It’s used by patients, practices, and facilities alike, which means every iteration has to account for three different experiences.

“We realised pretty quickly that we weren’t designing for one user,” Aimee notes.

“We were designing for three and they all have very different needs.”

From NPS feedback to stakeholder reviews, the system evolved to support that complexity. Access levels, views, and reporting became more tailored. Today, Ultrasound adapts to whoever’s using it and is still shaped by those who do.

The Product That Keeps Listening

Ultrasound continues to evolve. New modules like stock tracking and stakeholder performance are being developed. But the core approach hasn’t changed.

“We still have those check-ins. We still bring feedback into every sprint,” Aimee says. “That’s what keeps the product human. And that’s what keeps it working.”

From scrappy prototype to full-fledged platform, Ultrasound is a product born from service design and raised by its users.

“I don’t think of it as a product we made,” Aimee smiles. “I think of it as a product we grew with the people who use it.”

Want to explore Ultrasound or learn more about Kaleidoscope’s work in medical service design? Catch us at the DHASA conference in September 2025 where we will be sharing our new Stock Management Module.