Paper-based Prototypes for EPR : ---Visualization of Electronic Patient Record

Sammanfattning: With the development of information technology, Electronic Patient Record (EPR) is becoming more and more common in the healthcare area, comparing to traditional paper-based patient record. EPR can include a wide range of data and information. Because of the complexity of the clinical data, EPR needs to be presented in a better way using visualization for physicians to actually benefit from it. The goal of this master thesis is to find out what the requirements are for visualization of electronic patient records and how it should look like. Propose visualization paper-prototypes for patient record based on the identified requirements. The result of this thesis will help companies that are developing EPR systems to understand what is needed in visualization of electronic patient records. It will help research groups and companies in this area capture what the physicians require regarding visualization of patient records. This master thesis is conducted with an exploratory approach. A qualitative approach was chosen to help us understand what was needed for visualization of EPR from the perspectives of healthcare personnel. Data was be collected through interviews and brainstorming sessions among four physicians. Two prototypes of visualizing patient records are proposed based on the obtained requirements: Prototype I diagnosis-based time line and Prototype II human body structure. Evaluation was be performed for those two proposed prototypes together with an existing research prototype “Lifelines” From the findings of this master thesis, we can notice that different physicians have different requirements and preferences on visualization of electronic patient record. The most critical and desired feature is to be able to individualize the system as well as the addition of a search engine to search the record. A combination of the proposed Prototype I diagnosis-based time line and Prototype II human body structure was the most preferred among the physicians.