Development of a person-centered patient portal in oncology using stakeholder co-design.

Abstract

221 Background: Patient portals are software products that provide care recipients (patients) with access to some or all of their personal health information (PHI) within a healthcare institution’s electronic medical record (EMR). Most patient portals are just that–windows into an EMR. However, in today’s connected world, a patient portal can offer much more than just access to PHI. By exploiting modern technology and by recognizing that care recipients are people with complex needs that extend beyond just the delivery of care, patient portals can be person-centered. Such person-centered needs include: the ability to plan ahead and know one’s position in a waiting list, to feel in control of one’s own care, to understand one’s treatment options, and to share in all decision-making about one’s care. Methods: We used stakeholder co-design, involving care recipients, care providers (clinicians) and technical experts at all levels, to design and develop a person-centered patient portal from within the healthcare system. Results: Our mobile-friendly patient portal, known as Opal (opalmedapps.com), contains the following: One-stop multi-speciality and multi-institutional operation; Appointment schedule with personalized appointment preparation guidelines; Appointment check-in and waiting room management tools; Monitoring of step-by-step radiotherapy treatment planning; Access to PHI contextualized with explanatory information; Access to personalized educational materials; Patient-reported outcomes questionnaires with response visualizations; An automated rules-based system to minimize clinician workload; Triggered notifications to alert patients and clinicians to actionable events. Conclusions: Opal is currently in beta release involving a small number of oncology patients at our centre who are providing feedback about its use and usefulness. Their initial feedback is very positive and enthusiastic. A full pilot study is starting by July 2018.