Designing privacy-friendly digital whiteboards for mediation of clinical progress

Abstract

BackgroundIn hospitals, digital versions of dry-erase whiteboards are increasingly becoming more common. One of the purposes with such whiteboards is to support coordination of care by augmenting visibility and availability of clinical information. However, clinical information usually concerns patients and is regarded as sensitive personal health information, meaning that it should be access controlled. The purpose of this study is to explore how digital whiteboards can be designed for supporting coordination of care, by providing clinicians with useful information in a usable way, and at the same time protect patient privacy.MethodsA demo application was designed, demonstrated and evaluated iteratively. In total, 15 professional ward nurses role-played a scenario in which the application played a central part. Afterwards, the participants were interviewed. All interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed qualitatively.ResultsThe participants valued having updated clinical information presented on a digital whiteboard, even if the information was de-identified and abstracted. According to the participants, such information could possibly improve inter-departmental communication, reduce the number of electronic health record-logins, and make nurses more rapidly aware of new information. The participants expected that they would be able to re-identify much of the de-identified information in real situations based on their insight into their patients’ recent and expected care activities. Moreover, they also valued being able to easily access more detailed information and verify patient identities. While abstraction and de-identification was regarded to sufficiently protect the patients’ privacy, the nurses also pointed out the importance of having control over what can be seen by other patients and passers-by if detailed medical information was accessed on a digital whiteboard.ConclusionsPresenting updated information from patient care activities on a digital whiteboard in a de-identified and abstracted format may support coordination of care at a hospital ward without compromising patient privacy.

Continuous interprofessional coordination in perioperative work: an exploratory study

“…In a related research project, we have designed and conducted a small validation study of a system that displays information about ongoing perioperative events on a wall-mounted screen. The feedback from the clinical test persons adds support to our hypothesis that a fully functional version of such a system may enhance the users ability to project and thereby improve coordination of work (Gjaere & Lillebo, 2014).…”

Electronic whiteboard implementation as a quality management tool optimizes IVF laboratory standardization and improves clinical outcomes

“…To our knowledge, we are the first IVF laboratory to implement and assess the impact of an electronic whiteboard that displays the evaluation times and the schedule of procedures performed each day. Electronic whiteboards have been utilized in other medical fields to increase visibility and access to necessary clinical information so as to improve clinical workflow and patient outcomes [8,9]. The advantage of an electronic IVF laboratory schedule linked to the medical record is that it can be automatically updated in real time as evaluations are initiated and completed and can be broadly displayed throughout the laboratory for ease of access.…”

“…One tool, which has increasingly been implemented in clinical settings to improve information accuracy and overall workflow, is an electronic whiteboard. These electronic screens generally display necessary information about each patient and the status of tasks related to the care of individual patients, often replacing manually updated dry-erase whiteboards [8]. Studies have been performed to investigate the effect of electronic whiteboards on care processes and patient outcomes in the emergency department and operating theater [9].…”

Requirements and challenges of hospital dashboards: a systematic literature review

“…The identified challenges were categorized into four groups: data sources and data generation [ 26 – 30 , 40 , 47 , 54 , 56 , 69 , 71 , 72 ], dashboard content [ 19 , 31 , 36 , 41 , 46 – 48 , 50 , 57 , 59 ], dashboard design [ 19 , 26 , 33 , 34 , 36 , 40 , 41 , 54 , 69 , 70 ], and implementation and integration [ 19 , 26 , 28 , 33 – 37 , 40 , 44 , 50 , 56 , 67 , 69 , 70 , 72 ]. The proposed strategies to eliminate these challenges are presented in Table 3 .…”