Patient-centered care via health information technology: a qualitative study with experts from Israel and the U.S.

ABSTRACT

Although patient-centered care (PCC) is one of the cornerstones of modern healthcare, the role that health information technology (HIT) plays in supporting PCC remains unclear. In this qualitative study, we interviewed academic and clinical experts from the US and Israel to understand to what extent current HIT systems are supportive of PCC and how PCC should be supported by HIT in the future. A maximum variation sampling approach was used to identify nine experts in both HIT and PCC from clinical and academic settings in Israel and the US. A qualitative descriptive method was used to analyze the interviews and identify major themes. Experts suggested that patient ownership of their disease is a core component of PCC. The majority of the experts agreed that in both Israel and the US, the current situation of PCC implementation is relatively poor. However, HIT should play an important role in making patients owners of their health and treatment and helping providers in delivering better PCC. Central domains of PCC via HIT were providing clear information and support for patients and promoting care that is based on patient values and preferences.

KEYWORDS:

• Patient-centered care
• quality of care
• health informatics
• electronic health record
• qualitative descriptive study

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This research has been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The Institutional Review Board of the University of Haifa – Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences grated approval for this study and research on human subjects on October 19, 2017, under approval number 355/17. All participants in this study have given written consent to the inclusion of material pertaining to themselves. They acknowledge that they cannot be identified via the paper and have been fully anonymized.

Availability of data and materials

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, MT. The data are not publicly available due to privacy restrictions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Israel National Institute for Health Policy Research (NIHPR) [2017/232/ר].