The Role of Care Pathways in Personal Health Records

摘要

Care pathways, also known as clinical pathways, are one of the main tools used to manage the quality in healthcare concerning the standardization of care processes. They promote organized and efficient patient care based on evidence based medicine. It has been shown that their use reduces the variability in clinical practice and improves outcomes. However, so far the use of care pathways is restricted on healthcare personnel. We have analyzed the gains of care pathways in the context of new emerging healthcare models such as patient-centered healthcare. Especially we have extended Personal Health Records by the functionalities related to care pathways. We have used Business Process Diagrams for graphical representation of care pathways. Further, these diagrams can be easily translated into executable WS-BPEL code. Their executions coordinate care pathways and automate many of their functionalities, such as the reservation of clinical resources and information therapy.