The Washington, D.C.-based Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC) has issued a white paper identifying the capabilities and functionalities of eHealth applications that experts consider crucial to support the patient-centered medical home (PCMH).
The paper, entitled, Meaningful Connections: A resource guide for using health IT to support the patient centered medical home, aims to guide the development and implementation of health IT in a direction that supports the overarching principles of the PCMH, says the organization. Rather than focusing on specific products or vendors, it speaks in global terms about the capabilities and functionalities needed to build an information platform that will enable improvements in quality, safety, effectiveness and access, says PCPCC.
The document identifies five capabilities that map directly to the needs of the connected PCMH model:
· Ability to collect, store, manage and exchange relevant personal health information;
· Ability of providers, patients and other members of a person’s health team to communicate among themselves and in the process of care delivery;
· Ability to collect, store, measure and report on the processes and outcomes of individual and population performance and quality of care;
· Ability of providers and their practices to engage in decision support for evidence-based treatments and tests; and
· Ability of consumers and patients to be informed, literate about their health and medical conditions and appropriately self-manage with monitoring and coaching from providers.
The paper was produced by Health2 Resources and funded through a grant by Merck. To download it, visit www.pcpcc.net.
PCPCC is a coalition of more than 400 major employers, consumer groups, organizations representing primary care physicians, and other stakeholders who have joined to advance the patient centered medical home.
