Data model design for eHealth services

Abstract

With a growing population of people with a chronic healthcare condition, new policies including those of the WHO (2018), stress the importance of eHealth. So far, these services with advanced medical informatics technology offer increased possibilities of collecting and recording data such on for instance body measurements, treatment - and lifestyle activities. However, the sharing of this data between patients and healthcare professionals is relatively unexplored
In this paper we interrogate meanings and assumptions relating to ‘Design’ and ‘Technology’ with a particular focus on the provocative term
‘Design for Value’. We investigate the value of data-sharing in eHealth services for persons with a chronic condition. Our aim is to explore and model the data sharing in order to contribute to new experiences of value in technology enabled care services. The guiding research question: How to frame, shape and
model personal data sharing with health professionals? The research method builds on strategic design methodologies for co-designing care models
for eHealth services. For this research we have crafted a data model design toolkit with enhanced visualizations of data exchange. The results presented in this paper include the data model designs for a
case of chronic eHealth services: A. Diabetes portal. We conclude with a discussion on the modelling of data-sharing, its theoretical implications for
the design for value and its further avenues for future research to deepen our understanding of data modelling and what designers and healthcare organizations can do.