Designing an information interface to support sharing of information in cancer care

Abstract

This paper describes the design, implementation and testing of a functional prototype interface which enables primary healthcare teams to access the information system supporting clinical oncology specialists in South Wales, UK. A lack of information sharing has been recognized for some time as a barrier to improving the primary care of cancer patients. This extension to the existing ISCO information system will allow sharing of information about patient management at all levels of cancer patient support (general practitioners, hospital-based clinicians and palliative care teams). The application was designed to allow general practitioners to gain access to the existing system. This will give all healthcare professionals interested in a cancer patient's care the advantage of accessing detailed multiple providers' electronic casenotes in almost real time, thus improving communication of information within a care team. However, no attempt was made to include the much bigger issue of patients and their families or carers in the scope of the project at this stage, as this is an area requiring separate investigation. The pilot also enables general practitioners to determine the information they require and the information they need to be able to communicate with the cancer specialists.

A systems approach to a deeper understanding of a cancer care domain

“…The pilot study A pilot interface that links a number of GPs' systems with the ISCO information system was implemented and evaluated as a precursor to this project [1]. The main aim of this rapid implementation was to assess the feasibility of the project's goal to provide information across the different levels of the healthcare spectrum and to ensure that the benefits of the required system would outweigh the cost.…”

“…A detailed review of the ideas developed and tested in the pilot [1] was undertaken in the initial phase so that it could be used as a starting point for further work toward determining the information requirements to build an appropriate system.…”

“…A survey study by the British Computer Society [3] investigated the perception of why IT projects fail. 1 The survey involved detailed questioning of 38 members of the BCS, the Association of Project Managers and the Institute of Management. Managers were asked to share 50 points across at least three factors that they identified as the main causes of failure from their perspectives.…”