Blue Button ChallengeHealthCentral: Reimagining the patient experiencePrepared by Lybba

Submitted on November 30, 2012

Our version of Blue Button is not just improved data visualization. It’s not just a repository of health information.

It’s an engaging, interactive, behavior-oriented interface that makes patients’ information legible as well as actionable—providing patients and their families the opportunities and encouragement to reach health goals.

HealthCentral:the medical record comes to life...

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Active patients = better outcomes = lower costs for everyone.

HealthCentral is an online resource that makes it easy to access, organize, maintain, and make meaningful use of digital health information to improve both self-care and clinical care.

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To best understand and address the needs of Blue Button users, we created a research-based persona named Frank Covington.

Frank Covington is 68, a recently retired Walmart employee in Richmond, Virginia. Divorced, Frank lives alone but his son and grandchildren are nearby. Frank’s grandchildren are his pride and joy. Nothing makes him happier than tossing balls with them in the backyard. But such activities are becoming more difficult; Frank gets out of breath quickly, his movements are slow, and his knees hurt.

Why? Frank is overweight: 5’10”, 250 pounds. Stubborn when it comes to his health, Frank doesn’t take care of himself, and hasn’t been to a doctor in 5 years. He smokes, enjoys his beer, lives off fast food and frozen dinners, and doesn’t exercise.

He’s starting to really feel the effects of his poor health, though. And suspects he needs to change. But doesn’t know how.

• Better understand his conditions

• Learn how to change his health and stay on track

• Feel informed, but not overwhelmed with information

• See his grandchildren grow up

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Meet Frank

Frank’s Goals:

After Frank’s first physical and lab tests at the VA, he receives a phone call from his new doctor, Dr. Watkins, with bad news. Frank has high blood pressure, osteoarthritis, high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes. Frank will need to lose weight and begin medications. Right away.

The good news is that HealthCentral can help Frank get his health on track. It provides Frank with tools to better care for himself, allows him to share his records with family, automatically updates his health information, and keeps his data in one place.

After the call, Frank receives an email from Dr. Watkins with an “Introduction to HealthCentral” video, and a link to Frank’s HealthCentral account.

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HealthCentral is the answer.

healthcentralpowered by blue button

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Primary navigation

Frank’s current stats

Frank’s health goals

Additional links:Print entire health recordUser settingsVA.gov

Frank’s detailed care plan:things Frank can do right now to reach his health goals

RemindersUpcoming appointments

Help

HealthCentral Anatomy

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The scenario: Frank uses HealthCentral.

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A few weeks later, Frank logs in to his HealthCentral account, and lands on his Care Plan page.

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The “Reminders” section lets Frank know he needs to reorder some of his medications. Frank can order meds directly through HealthCentral.

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He checks his medication schedule for details.

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Since walking is part of Frank’s new exercise regimen, he wants to see sample walking workouts, so he clicks on the link.

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He clicks on the walking icon which pulls up a sample route in his neighborhood, starting from his house.

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Frank wants to see other walking options too so he clicks on the orange arrow, which shows a nearby park.

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Frank clicks on the strength training icon to get a sample leg workout that will help the osteoarthritis in his knee.

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He decides to print the slideshow of all the strength training exercises.

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Frank is curious about his recent cholesterol test so he goes to his lab page and clicks “Lipid Panel” and “Most Recent.” He plans to show these to his dietitian to get guidance on how to reach his goals.

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He has forgotten what HDL is so he hovers over his HDL result to read a brief description.

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Frank’s son, Mitch, asked if he could have access to Frank’s HealthCentral record, so Frank goes to his profile page and grants Mitch access. Mitch then gets a message requiring him to provide credentials and sign in securely.

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Frank then logs out of HealthCentral and heads out the door for a walk!

Kelli AuerbachDavid ForeLeslie Marticke

We believe in sharing, but please respect our creative commons license. For more information, visit http://tinyurl.com/b7eegkb

Thank you!

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