What a great post from Katie McCurdy on the new age of medicine and the fact that the medical record needs to be more than single points of data recorded when we stop by a healthcare facility or clinical office.
Katie comes at this as an interaction designer so is able to create a coherent and easy to digest record which might be harder for others. But as she rightly points out
a patient-generated timeline, if that artifact makes the storytelling process easier for the patient & more coherent for the doctor, it adds a lot of value even if the doctor doesn’t want to take time to carefully analyze it.
Agreed – and as many of the e-Patients have demonstrated capturing and understanding data is helpful in the successful management of their care. And importantly as Edward Tufte has demonstrated repeatedly clear presentation of data is the key to understanding.
Doctors may not have the time to assemble the record in these formats and while there is a challenge presentation of multiple formats the process of capturing and documenting alone is valuable and likely to lead better understanding for the patient and the clinical care team.
What a great resource to have an engaged e-Patient who has a background in interaction design working on a project like this.
