OPERATIONAL CYCLE OF WATCHMYHEALTH

Stress on design that makes the initiation of each step conditional to the obligatory completion of the preceding step.

Dr Ramesh Kumar

What makes WATCHMYHEALTH distinctive is not the unprejudiced and unrestricted application of IT for healthcare decisions, but the continuity of the workflow that is based on a

1. continuous surveillance for derangements in the form of the up-to-date maintenance of the PHR as per programmed test scheduling ,
2. continuous exposition and alerting of these derangements and
3. the  obligatory responsiveness of the executive arms of the system to the derangements,
4. continuous, obligatory pressure on the clients to implement the optimal responses to the derangements and thus closing the operational cycle.

WATCHMYHEALTH insists on

• the currrency and completeness of PHR maintenance
• medically competent, secure, holistic and comprehensive decisions by expert systems
• Human endorsement of decisions by doctors (where drug treatment is involved) and by other qualified providers legally competent to provide other forms of healthcare advice.
• Contractual pressure on clients to adhere to treatments (that such pressure will be used should be part of the WMH contract) .  Pressure to adhere may take the form of reminders, offer of home phlebotomy services, involving relatives and applying persuasion and pressure through them (the initial contract with the patient should specify the relatives or other carers who the patient has permitted for this function), reward systems and other creative methods for improving adherence

Each step in the operational cycle should be designed in such a way that the next step will become inescapable.  For example, it is inevitable that the occupant in a hotel room should not misplace his key - and therefore the system is designed so that the card key being placed in its slot near the front door is also the power switch for the room.  Such a design ensures that the card key is always placed in the slot and will not be misplaced by the occupant.