Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are a valued source of health information, but prior work focuses largely on data capture without guidance on visual displays that promote effective PRO use in patient-centered care.
We engaged patients, providers, and design experts in human-centered design of "PRO dashboards" that illustrate trends in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) reported by patients following prostate cancer treatment.
We designed and assessed the feasibility of integrating dashboards into care in 3 steps: (1) capture PRO needs of patients and providers through focus groups and interviews; (2) iteratively build and refine a prototype dashboard; and (3) pilot test dashboards with patients and their provider during follow-up care.
Focus groups (n = 60 patients) prioritized needs for dashboards that compared longitudinal trends in patients' HRQOL with "men like me. " Of the candidate dashboard designs, 50 patients and 50 providers rated pictographs less helpful than bar charts, line graphs, or tables (P < . 001) and preferred bar charts and line graphs most. Given these needs and the design recommendations from our Patient Advisory Board (n = 7) and design experts (n = 7), we built and refined a prototype that charts patients' HRQOL compared with age- and treatment-matched patients in personalized dashboards. Pilot testing dashboard use (n = 12 patients) improved compliance with quality indicators for prostate cancer care (P < . 01).
PRO dashboards are a promising approach for integrating patient-generated data into prostate cancer care. Informed by human-centered design principles, this work establishes guidance on dashboard content, tailoring, and clinical use that patients and providers find meaningful.
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA. 2015 Aug 09 [Epub ahead of print]
Andrea L Hartzler, Jason P Izard, Bruce L Dalkin, Sean P Mikles, John L Gore
Group Health Research Institute, Seattle, Washington, USA. Departments of Urology and Oncology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. , Department of Urology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA. , Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA. , Department of Urology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.