Page 69 - Health Literacy, eHealth, and Communication: Putting the Consumer First: Workshop Summary

Health Literacy, eHealth, and Communication: Putting the Consumer First: Workshop Summary

HeALtH LiteRACY, eHeALtH, AnD CoMMUniCAtion

A uSER-CENTERED PERSONAL HEALTH RECORD:
THE DESIgN AND DEVELOPMENT OF
THE SHARED CARE PLAN
Dawn Gauthier, M.i.S.
Web Usability Designer, PeaceHealth

In 2001 the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded a Pursuing
Perfection grant to Whatcom County, Washington (the only community
to receive such a grant) to implement a chronic disease model, including
the development of a user-centered personal health record (PHR). The
project was also supported by a patient safety grant from the Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality. With the publication of Crossing the
Quality Chasm (IOM, 2001), those working on the project kept in mind the
report’s six aims for improvement and the ten rules for the health care
5
4
system as design work proceeded.
Whatcom County had been very much interested in designing a
patient-centered health care system. Development of a user-centered
electronic health record, the Shared Care Plan, fit well with the activities
of the County. The project began with a focus on chronic conditions and
the design of a chronic-disease-management tool. The involvement of
patients pushed the design in the direction of a personal health record.
The design goals of the Shared Care Plan, which was an endeavor of
the entire community including all the providers, were to
• facilitate patients’ interactions with the health care system, sup-
porting the virtual Care Team concept, and planned care, and to
ensure the “nothing about me without me” perspective of the
patient;
• offer patients a tool that fosters a sense of responsibility for their
own health and encourages them to learn about and practice prin-
ciples of self-management (such as maintaining a medication list),
thereby encouraging educated and engaged patients;
• provide a tool that enables patients to feel safer because they are
informed and in control; and

4 The six aims for improvement for the health care system are that the system must be safe,
effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable (IOM, 2001).
5 The 10 rules for the health care system are that care should be based on continuous
healing relationships, there should be customization based on patient needs and values, the
patient should be the source of control, there should be shared knowledge and the free flow
of information, there should be evidence-based decision making, safety should be a system
property, there is a need for transparency, the health system should anticipate patient needs,
there should be a continuous decrease in waste, and there should be cooperation among
clinicians (IOM, 2001).

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