Five studios that design for patients, providers, and the systems in between.
People rarely visit a healthcare website because they want to. They arrive worried, in pain, or on behalf of someone they care about, and they need to find a doctor, book an appointment, or understand a diagnosis without getting lost. A confusing healthcare site doesn’t just lose a conversion. It can delay care.
That makes healthcare one of the hardest categories in web design. Sites have to meet accessibility standards, protect sensitive data, work for people of every age and level of health literacy, and connect to scheduling and records systems that were never built with users in mind. The agencies below have done exactly that work, from large hospital networks to digital health startups and life sciences companies.
Selected on merit alone, across health systems, digital health, and life sciences.
| # | Agency | Price |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Koto London · Berlin · LA · New York · Sydney | $$$ |
| 02 | ustwo London / New York | $$$ |
| 03 | Modea Blacksburg, VA, USA | $$$ |
| 04 | R/GA New York + Global | $$$$ |
| 05 | basement.studio Remote · Global | $$$ |
Health-tech companies, mental health platforms, digital health brands moving from clinical to consumer
Huma (formerly Medopad), Talkspace
Brand, naming, and web design that make health products feel warm and human without losing clinical credibility.
Most health brands look cold because they’re afraid of looking unserious. Koto has built a reputation for proving the opposite. Its year-long project for Medopad renamed the remote patient monitoring company as Huma and covered research, strategy, naming, product design, and web design, replacing a sterile clinical look with a warm, illustrated identity that still earned trust from healthcare providers. More recently, the studio refreshed Talkspace’s brand across marketing, website, and campaigns to make therapy feel like a normal part of life.
Digital health products, medtech companies, patient companion apps, clinician tools
RVO Health, Fresenius Medical Care, Helios Health
A digital product studio where healthcare is one of the fastest-growing practices, built on emotionally aware research and design.
ustwo designs for the emotional side of healthcare that clinical products often ignore. For Helios Health it created Pineapp Fertility, a companion service that supports patients between in-person treatments, along with a soft, human beta brand. Its work for Fresenius Medical Care changed how clinicians access information at the patient’s bedside, and its project with RVO Health reshaped health coaching in the US with AI. The studio suits health organizations whose product and website both have to earn trust from patients and professionals at once.
Hospitals and health systems, academic medical centers, children’s hospitals
Nemours Children’s Health, Keck Medicine of USC, CHOP, RUSH
A healthcare-only consultancy that designs the “digital front door”: websites, scheduling, and apps connected to health records.
Modea works only in healthcare, and most of its work is for health systems trying to make their websites the real starting point for care. That means find-a-doctor tools, online scheduling, and patient apps connected to electronic health records, all designed around how patients actually move between digital and in-person care. Its work with RUSH reimagined online scheduling around the patient rather than the hospital’s internal structure. For large providers whose websites have become a patchwork of departments, Modea is one of the most experienced partners available.
Pharma and life sciences brands, global health companies, large-scale health campaigns and platforms
Moderna
A dedicated health practice inside a global design and technology company, for life sciences brands operating across many markets.
R/GA runs a specialized health practice alongside its brand, product, and experience design work, which makes it a fit for life sciences companies that need consumer-grade digital experiences at global scale. Pharmaceutical and biotech brands face a specific problem: they have to speak clearly to patients, healthcare professionals, and investors while staying inside strict regulatory limits. R/GA brings the scale and multi-market experience that problem requires, though its pricing puts it out of reach for most smaller healthcare organizations.
Science-led health startups, biotech and research companies, teams recruiting top talent
Until Labs
High-craft brand and web work that makes complex science readable for patients, partners, and future hires.
Life sciences companies often have the opposite problem from hospitals: the science is brilliant, and the website explains none of it. basement.studio’s healthcare-first rebrand for Until Labs gave the company a new site that explains its science more clearly, ties the brand to its healthcare mission, and gives the team a stronger platform for recruiting and growth. The studio is known for technically ambitious, beautifully built websites, which suits research-driven companies that need to impress scientists, investors, and candidates as much as patients.
Most visitors arrive anxious or in a hurry. The most important tasks — finding a doctor, booking an appointment, checking symptoms, paying a bill — should be reachable in one or two clicks from every page.
Healthcare audiences include older adults, people with disabilities, and people using screen readers or large text. Accessible design isn’t a bonus feature here; it’s the baseline, and in many markets it’s a legal obligation.
Medical language that makes sense to clinicians often confuses patients. Plain-language content, clear explanations of services, and consistent terminology help people make better decisions about their care.
Forms, scheduling tools, and analytics can all expose sensitive health information if they’re not set up carefully. Privacy and compliance need to shape the site’s architecture from the start, not be added at the end.
Healthcare projects fail on integrations, accessibility, and review cycles. These questions surface all three early.
Healthcare sites connect to scheduling, provider directories, and health records. An agency that has only designed marketing pages will struggle once integrations enter the project.
The answer shows whether the agency understands the rules around health data, including how tracking tools and forms can create compliance risk.
Healthcare users are hard to recruit and easy to misunderstand. Agencies with real experience have established research methods and know how to include people across ages and abilities.
Look for a specific answer, such as WCAG 2.2 AA, and a clear process for testing it. Vague commitments usually mean accessibility gets cut when the timeline tightens.
Healthcare content often needs several rounds of review. Agencies that plan for it keep projects on schedule; those that don’t turn every page into a negotiation.
Healthcare sites serve people who are often stressed, unwell, or caring for someone else, and they handle sensitive personal data. They also have to meet strict accessibility and privacy requirements and connect to complex systems like scheduling and electronic health records. Clear, calm information design matters more here than in almost any other industry.
Any part of a site that collects, stores, or transmits protected health information must handle it in line with HIPAA in the US, and similar rules apply in other markets. That covers forms, patient portals, scheduling tools, and even some analytics setups. A good agency will design the site so sensitive data is handled only where it needs to be.
It varies widely. A site for a single practice or a small digital health startup can cost in the tens of thousands of dollars. Websites for hospitals and health systems, with provider directories, scheduling, and system integrations, usually run well into six figures, and larger digital front door programs can cost more.
A focused site for a startup or single practice often takes three to four months. Health system websites with integrations, large content migrations, and multiple review rounds commonly take nine to eighteen months. Compliance and clinical content review are the most common reasons timelines stretch.
For most healthcare organizations, a specialist is the safer choice because they already understand compliance, accessibility, and clinical workflows. General agencies can work well for consumer health brands and campaigns, especially when paired with an in-house team that knows the regulatory side.
It’s the set of digital tools that let patients start their care online: finding a provider, booking appointments, checking in, messaging their care team, and accessing records. For many health systems, the website is the center of that experience, which is why redesigns increasingly include scheduling and app integration, not just new pages.
Every studio on this page earned its place
on the strength of the work alone.
