Patient Centered Health Information Technology (PCHIT)

This initiative will improve adoption of health information technology (HIT) tools to better engage patients and families in their own care. We will support learning and implementation by working closely with a variety of organizations to better understand each organization’s key levers and barriers to adoption.

Why? In the current health care delivery system, most patients are still not able to access their provider when they need to, don’t know how to manage their own health, often do not understand what the provider tells them during a visit, and do not have access to their own health information when they need it. HIT has not been well leveraged to address consumers’ needs and allow them to best manage their health.

What? Patient-centered HIT tools help consumers organize the key information they need to weigh and understand the implications of their everyday decisions, and facilitate important dialog between clinicians and patients about their care. These tools include personal health records (PHRs)—secure portals that allow consumers to access their medical and personal health information. Patient-centered HIT also encompasses email access to physicians, web-based decision support tools, online prescription refills, and other applications.

How? After identifying five partner organizations across a diverse range of settings (different kinds of safety-net providers, provider groups, health systems, and health plans), we will conduct site visits, shadow staff, and provide coaching to a subset of them. The goal of the visits will be to understand their patient populations, local landscapes, workflows, incentive structures, capabilities, values, and resources that could either support or inhibit a model centered on the needs of patients. Techniques from LEAN business process will be used to support the patient-centered approach and analysis of key issues at each site. We will also work with a similar number of sites in the communities of partner sites and sites within Kaiser Permanente to provide additional information.We will develop a report of findings, including a guide to types of patient-centered tools that highlights the unique aspects relevant to different organizational structures, including barriers, local policy changes, and implementation recommendations for promoting adoption of patient-centered HIT tools. We will provide a list of recommendations for the foundations to consider for supporting these changes and potentially shape subsequent work in this area.This information will be used to inform strategic planning on the part of funders and other key stakeholders in promoting patient-centered health information technology for the populations they serve.

Who? Veenu Aulakh, MPH, Rachel Block, Ted Eytan, MD, and Josh Seidman, PhD, are principals, with Eytan as Director of Operations. This work is made possible by grants from the California Healthcare Foundation (Oakland, CA), United Hospital Fund (New York, NY), Kaiser Permanente (Oakland, CA), and Group Heath Community Foundation (Seattle, WA), in collaboration with the Center for Information Therapy (Bethesda, MD). The initiative is headquartered in Bethesda.