A HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM THAT EXTENDS HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL-PATIENT COMMUNICATION

A HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM THAT EXTENDS HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL-PATIENT COMMUNICATION

Communication between healthcare professionals and patients as part of the therapeutic process is often restricted to short, episodic face-to-face encounters within healthcare institutions. The absence of a continuous communication process that extends the face-to-face encounter to include the therapeutic process outside the institution limits the support and guidance healthcare professionals can provide, and in turn negatively affects patients´ adherence, health outcomes, and overall healthcare costs. This paper introduces the notion of interaction-templates that structure communication between healthcare professionals and patients along the entire therapeutic process. The presented health information system (HIS) prototype implements a follow-up and guidance process triggered by the face-to-face encounter, combining predefined interaction-templates and dialog functions enabling individual, situation-dependent communication. Analysis of data generated with the prototype will provide a better understanding of the structure, form, and content of communication in HIS that extend healthcare professional-patient communication.