DEVELOPING A PERSONALLY CONTROLLED HEALTH RECORD (PCHR) USING MICROSOFT VISUAL C# SESSION 9 SUMMARY

WHAT DID YOU DEVELOP?  A Personally Controlled Health Record (PCHR):  Allows an individual to capture, access, and manage his own health information securely.  The PCHR captures information on the following:  Allergies  Immunisations  Medication  Test results  Medical conditions  Medical procedures

SOCIAL IMPACT OF A PCHR  Allows individual to create lifelong summary of his health information in one convenient place.  Especially useful for individuals that must manage chronic conditions.  May also help to improve quality of care and communication between patients and healthcare providers.

SOCIAL IMPACT OF A PCHR (continued)  Patient can make printout of his/her PCHR available to his healthcare provider.  Availability of more data about a patient’s health will help healthcare providers to make better decisions.  PCHRs may also help to save costs since duplication of tests could be avoided if previous test results are available.

WHAT DESIGN ASPECTS DID YOU TAKE INTO ACCOUNT WHEN DEVELOPING THE PCHR?  User-friendly, professional user interface.  Protecting sensitive data by means of encryption.  Ensuring that the PCHR is portable.  Protecting an individual’s privacy.

USER INTERFACE DESIGN PRINCIPLES DISCOVERED DURING SESSIONS 2 & 3  Allow user to easily move between controls to capture data by using the TAB key on the keyboard.  Ensure consistent and appropriate use of colours.  Use fonts that are easy to read, preferably sans serif fonts.  Keep in mind that user reads from left to right.  Ensure that controls are neatly aligned.

USER INTERFACE DESIGN PRINCIPLES DISCOVERED DURING SESSIONS 2 & 3 (continued)  Vertical and horizontal spacing should be consistent and used appropriately to avoid clutter.  Ensure consistency across entire application.  Messages displayed to the user should:  be user-friendly and professional.  be clear and descriptive.  not use terms that will confuse the user.

WHY IS THE USER INTERFACE DESIGN SO IMPORTANT?  The user interface determines the usability of the application.  If the user struggles to understand the user interface he will struggle to use the application.  End-users often judge the quality of the application based on the user-interface.

LIMITATIONS OF APPLICATION  Addressing the following limitations of the application would make the application more realistic for use in the real world:  Access  Portability  Synchronization

LIMITATIONS OF APPLICATION (continued)  Access  Currently user is the only person that can log in to view record.  Would be useful if healthcare provider and others (for example health insurance provider) could also log in to view record.

LIMITATIONS OF APPLICATION (continued)  Access (continued)  Class discussion:  What information in a person’s PCHR should the healthcare provider be able to view?  What information in a person’s PCHR should a representative of the health insurance provider be able to view?

LIMITATIONS OF APPLICATION (continued)  Portability  Currently the user can only print or save his health record as a MS Word document.  This document can then be ed, faxed, or copied onto a portable storage medium for distribution to relevant stakeholders such as a healthcare provider.

LIMITATIONS OF APPLICATION (continued)  Portability (continued)  The user can only access and edit his record on the computer that it is currently installed on.  Would be even more useful if user was able to access and edit his record on any computer.  This would make the record more portable.

LIMITATIONS OF APPLICATION (continued)  Synchronization  Synchronization of different versions and copies of a person’s health record are not addressed by this application.  Would increase the usability of this application in the real world if the user was able to access the application from various devices to read and update his health record seamlessly.

ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF STORING HEALTH DATA ELECTRONICALLY  A PCHR is created and maintained by an individual to record his own health information.  PCHRs differ from Electronic Medical Records (EMRs).  An EMR is created and maintained by a healthcare provider about an individual.  Access to a PCHR is controlled entirely by the individual.  Access to the EMR is controlled by the healthcare provider – the individual can still request access to his own medical record at any time.

ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF STORING HEALTH DATA ELECTRONICALLY (continued)  There are also various issues regarding the ownership of the data if a patient’s health data is stored in an EMR by a healthcare provider.  Class discussion:  Who do you think should be regarded as the owner of the data?  The patient?  The healthcare provider that creates and maintains the record?  The company that created the EHR software?  The company that maintains the data servers that the EHRs are stored on?

SUMMARY  Concepts and trade-offs that you discovered during the completion of this project include:  The impact of a user-friendly user interface on the usability of an application.  The advantages of re-using code.  The importance of protecting sensitive data by means of encryption/decryption and the associated trade-offs of encryption/decryption.  The importance of underlying concepts such as adherence to software development best practices.

Any concluding remarks?