Online Health Monitoring System
Concept
of Operations
COP
4331, Fall, 2014
Modification history:
|
Version |
Date |
Who |
Comment |
|
v0.0 |
|
G. H. Walton |
Template |
|
v1.0 |
|
Ethan Pitts |
Filled out information for the concept of operations. |
|
v2.0 |
|
C. N. McCue |
Major revisions- expanded many sections |
Team Name: Team 14
Team Members:
Contents
of this Document
The Proposed System
Currently, there are many barriers to
patient-doctor communication. The
American health care system has a bureaucratic structure which hinders doctor
access. Because of legal issues, only a
doctor can give medical advice or answer questions about pill schedules. Taking pills is confusing. There are so many unimportant medical
warnings that are confusing to the patient.
It is confusing whether “take daily twice” means to take two pills each
day or take one pill for two days. What
is a confused patient to do?
Realistically, these minor services should not require a doctor’s
visit.
Often, there are waiting times of weeks for a
patient to see his or her doctor. Also,
doctor to patient communication is kept minimal at the doctor’s office. Patients wait in multiple waiting rooms to
finally spend 15 minutes with a doctor.
Doctors then hurry out to the next patient. Besides an expensive, elusive, time-consuming
visit to the doctor’s office, it is nearly impossible for doctors to
communicate directly with their patients.
Patients are usually seeking medical care because of discomfort. This inefficient health care system
exasperates and confuses already uncomfortable and vulnerable patients.
There was a time when the doctor-patient
relationship was a much more intimate relationship. The ingredients of this relationship were
ready access, good communication and common sense. Government attempts to reform health care,
such as ObamaCare, have been miserable failures. It is nearly impossible to reform the health
care bureaucracy from the top down. A
more realistic way to reform the health care system is with minor reforms from
the bottom up. Wal-mart has done this
with $4 prescriptions. Others, such as
Publix and Target, followed suit.
Currently, it seems that the most effective health care reforms are
bottom up reforms coming from the private, business sector.
It is unrealistic to think that the traveling
family doctor of old would make a comeback.
However, technology has greatly improved communications. An
It is proposed that a system be developed
with the objective of improving health care communication and decreasing
bureaucratic confusion. An Online Health
Monitoring System (OHMS) is proposed.
The system will improve doctor-patient communication by taking advantage
of high-tech communications that are readily available. SMS text messaging and video chat
technologies will be integrated to facilitate better doctor-patient
communication. The system will also make
minor tasks, such as pill taking and appointment scheduling, more
user-friendly. Instead of reading
confusing pill labels and traversing the bureaucratic maze of appointment
making, these minor tasks will be executed via an online interface.
The Proposed System:
Users and Modes of Operation
There will be two users: doctors and
patients. One can log in to the system
as either a doctor or patient.
Doctor:
The doctor user should have multiple patients
assigned to him or herself. The doctor should be able to request appointments
with patients, send messages to patients and video call patients. The doctor
should also be able to schedule when a patient takes his or her medication.
Patient:
The
patient user should be assigned to a doctor. The patient should be able to
request appointments with the doctor, send messages to the doctor, video call
the doctor and see his or her medication reminders. The patient should also
receive SMS messages concerning taking medication and reminding the patient of
upcoming appointments.
The Proposed
System: Operational Scenarios
Typical Patient Scenario:
Jim has back pains. His doctor has prescribed a medicine regiment
for him. Jim and his wife will be out of
the house all day. He logs into the
Online Health Monitoring System and writes down his pill schedule for that day
from the calendar. Jims puts all the needed
pills for the day into a container and brings his cell phone with him. He will receive texts throughout the day
concerning when to take each pill.
Atypical Patient Scenario:
Sheila is taking medicine for her heart
condition. She has the symptoms of
another heart attack. As with all
medical products, there will be warnings and disclaimers not to use this system
for emergency conditions. Sheila should
call 911. She should not use the video
chat or text messaging. The system is
only for minor, routine tasks and issues.
Typical Doctor Scenario:
This system will require time on the doctor’s
part. Doctors must perceive some benefit
to using this system, such as time saved elsewhere. Everyday, from
Atypical Doctor Scenario:
Doctor Watley is on vacation and he forgot to
notify his patients. His patients have
begun relying exclusively on his pill schedule and appointments from the
system. There must be a disclaimer about
relying exclusively on the system. It is
only meant to be a small convenience.
The Proposed
System: Operational Features
Must Have:
Would Like to Have:
The Proposed
System: Expected Impacts
Although this system will not reform the
health care system, it will provide small reforms in doctor-patient
relations. Patients will find that the
user-friendly system reduces confusion concerning pill schedules and reduces
their anxiety in managing appointments.
Patients will appreciate better communication with their doctor. This, in turn, will build more loyal
patients. In the end, patients may begin
to prefer doctors that use this system.
Once doctors are convinced of the benefits of
this system, increasing numbers of doctors will also begin using the
system. Doctors could fill out pill
schedules and manage appointments as they are conversing with patients about
these. Doctors will find that they will
be able to provide better care for their patients. Doctors should find it more common for people
to show up on time for appointments and for patients to take their medication
at the recommended times. Overall, the
most major impact of the system will be closer, improved doctor-patient
relationships. This will make the
doctor’s job more pleasant. This will
put the patient at ease. “An apple a day
keeps the doctor away”. However, if you
need health care, “A login a day to the Online Health Monitoring System keeps
the doctor near.”
Expected Improvements: better doctor-patient
communication, less pill schedules confusion, less forgotten appointments
Disadvantages: doctors spend more time
communicating with patients (doctors must see benefits to using the system),
patients have to learn a new system
Limitations: limited features
Risks: patients using system communications
for high risk situations, technical issues leading to missing important
appointments or medications, busy doctors neglecting to use the system
Alternatives and Tradeoffs: more doctor
communication time means less time to visit patients, the overheard of using
this system must outweigh the disadvantages for doctors and patients
Template
created by G. Walton (GWalton@mail.ucf.edu) on
This page last modified by Chris McCue (christopher.mccue@knights.ucf.edu) on 9/25/2014