“Don't drop the patient:” Health information in a postpandemic world

Abstract

Building on technological advances and existing currents of a healthcare system in flux, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about perhaps the most rapid transformation in human health and healthcare seen in our times. Even as new opportunities such as telemedicine, remote care, and rapid precision health practices are poised to improve access and care for populations, the increasing sophistication of this transformation has brought with it new levels of complexity, fragmentation, and silos. The singular outcome of this system is the vast number of novel ways for miscommunication, loss of information in transition, and breakdowns in the cognitive continuity of care. We refer to these failure modes as “dropping the patient” and adopt a mantra of “don't drop the patient” which examines our emerging health system in the context of patient-centered continuity. In this light, we investigate bright spots and pitfalls, and we offer insights from Human Factors Engineering, Human Centered Design, and Human System Integration, which provide tools and methods to codesign and codevelop continuous and resilient services that are inclusive, sustainable, and effective.