HCC: Small: Patient-Provider Handoff: Collaboration Challenges and Technology Design

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This work aims to obtain an empirical understanding of the collaborative behaviors in patient-provider handoffs and to explore opportunities for designing technologies that support and enhance these practices. Handoffs, also called handovers, occur when workers exchange information necessary for their tasks, and when responsibility for an operation shifts from one person to another. Handoffs are often considered as the most error-prone activities in collaborative work, especially for time-critical tasks under continuous operation, such as in software design, 24/7 services areas, and healthcare practices. In healthcare, this project's area of study, repeated handoffs occur between patients and their health providers, with information being transferred from patients or caregivers to healthcare professionals, and conversely from professionals back to patients. The challenges involved in patient-provider collaboration make it a uniquely situated area to study.This research uses ethnographic methods to investigate patient-provider handoffs in three different patient care settings: an emergency department, an inpatient ward, and an outpatient clinic. It aims to study the entire spectrum of activities related to handoffs, including pre-visit, medical visit, and post-visit information work performed by patients and clinicians. In addition, based on the empirical insights obtained through the ethnographic study, an information media prototype will be used to solicit feedback and further insights on designing information systems to mediate patient-provider collaboration. The research will provide both empirical and conceptual insights into understanding the mechanisms, challenges and behavioral patterns of team collaboration involving consumers and professionals. The findings will benefit the design and the adoption of information systems for health practices, and will reduce information and communication errors in the handoff process. In the long run, this study will also positively impact larger populations of patients through the wide dissemination of the findings and through improving the design of the future information media for patient-provider handoffs.