Introduction: Integrated care involves different professionals, belonging to different care provider organizations and requires immediate
and ubiquitous access to patient-oriented information, supporting an integrated view on the care process [1].
Purpose: To present a method for development of usable and work process-oriented information and communication technology (ICT) systems
for integrated care.
Theory and method: Based on Human-computer Interaction Science and in particular Participatory Design [2], we present a new collaborative design method in the context of health information systems (HIS) development [3]. This method implies a thorough analysis of the entire interdisciplinary cooperative work and a transformation of the results
into technical specifications, via user validated scenarios, prototypes and use cases, ultimately leading to the development
of appropriate ICT for the variety of occurring work situations for different user groups, or professions, in integrated care.
Results and conclusions: Application of the method in homecare of the elderly resulted in an HIS that was well adapted to the intended user groups.
Conducted in multi-disciplinary seminars, the method captured and validated user needs and system requirements for different
professionals, work situations, and environments not only for current work; it also aimed to improve collaboration in future
(ICT supported) work processes. A holistic view of the entire care process was obtained and supported through different views
of the HIS for different user groups, resulting in improved work in the entire care process as well as for each collaborating
profession [4].
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1.
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Building usability into health informatics: development and evaluation of information systems for shared homecare. [Thesis]. Uppsala: Uppsala University; 2007.
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2.
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Participatory design—principles and practices. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 1993.
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3.
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From user needs to system requirements—multi-disciplinary thematic seminars as a collaborative design method for development
of health information systems. Journal of Biomedical Informatics 2008; 41(4):557-69.
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4.
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Bridging the gap: a virtual health record for integrated home care. International Journal of Integrated Care [serial online] 2007 Jun 27; 7. Available from: http://www.ijic.org/.
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