A web-based communication system for integrated care in cerebral palsy: design features, technical feasibility and usability

Abstract

We developed a secure, web-based system for parent-professional and inter-professional communication. The aim was to improve communication in the care of children with cerebral palsy. We conducted a six-month trial of the system in three Dutch health-care regions. The participants were the parents of 30 cerebral palsy patients and 120 professional staff involved in their care. Information about system usage was extracted from the system's database. The experience of the parents and professionals was evaluated by a questionnaire after six months. The system proved to be technically robust and reliable. A total of 21 parents (70%) and 66 professionals (55%) used the system. The parents submitted 111 questions and 59 responses, with a mean of 5 questions (range 1-17) and 3 responses (range 1-9) per parent. The professionals submitted 79 questions and 237 responses, with a mean of 2 questions (range 1-8) and 4 responses (range 1-23) per professional. Most parents (95%) and some professionals (30%) reported value in using the system, which ranged from efficiency and accessibility to flexibility and transparency. The web-based communication system was technically feasible and produced improved parent-professional and inter-professional communication. It may be especially valuable if frequent interventions or consultations about a child's care are required, involving complex care networks of different professionals and organisations.

Implementation of an innovative web-based conference table for community-dwelling frail older people, their informal caregivers and professionals: a process evaluation

“…These largely agree with the barriers found in this study, i.e. preferring personal contact, being worried about security of data and time constraints [13,24-26], even though the results on this latter barrier were somewhat mixed in our study, with about two-third of professionals reporting that they considered the time spent on using the ZWIP limited, whereas interviewees reported that time constraints did present a barrier to using the ZWIP. Additional barriers specific to this study were the low computer-literacy of frail older people and the experienced start-up problems.…”

Determinants of use and non-use of a web-based communication system in cerebral palsy care: evaluating the association between professionals' system use and their a priori expectancies and background

“…The inclusion of professionals was based on the inclusion of cerebral palsy patients and their parents, which was determined by a rehabilitation physician based on specific selection criteria which we described in our previous study [11]. Of all the professionals involved in the care of the 30 selected cerebral palsy patients, 120 (67%) were willing to participate in the study.…”

“…Previously we described its design features, technical feasibility and clinical usability with respect to its aims, as well as parents' and professionals' actual system use in a 6-months pilot in three Dutch care regions. We found that half of the participating professionals had not used the system at all and of the professionals who had used the system, a third had used it only once [11]. To enable the development of services with a higher adoption rate it is important to obtain insight into the determinants of use and non-use [12], which might facilitate the definition of user requirements and hence a better fit between user requirements and the system.…”

A web-based communication system for the integrated care setting of cerebral palsy: experienced contribution to parent-professional communication

“…Based on the identified gaps in three Dutch cerebral palsy care regions (Box 2), we aimed to obtain insight in the feasibility and usability of an eHealth application to improve patient care communication in these settings. Hereto, we developed a web-based system for parent-professional and inter-professional communication [31], aimed to increase patient-centeredness, facilitate inter-professional contact and enhance network transparency (see Appendix). Representing an ‘innovator’ phase [32, 33], early prototypes of eHealth technology are generally evaluated on technical stability and user acceptance [34, 35].…”

“…Representing an ‘innovator’ phase [32, 33], early prototypes of eHealth technology are generally evaluated on technical stability and user acceptance [34, 35]. As the system proved to be technically feasible in a six-months pilot in three Dutch care regions and most parents reported added value in using the system [31], the present study aimed to evaluate parents’ experiences regarding the system’s contribution to their communication with involved professionals during the six-months pilot. Hereto, we focused on those aspects of parent-professional communication in which we previously identified gaps and hence were targets of improvement for the web-based system, being sufficiency of contact, timeliness of information exchange, accessibility of professionals, consistency of information and the extent to which parents felt they had to act as care coordinator or messenger of information between professionals.…”