Noodles of ODLs

By Steve Downs and Patricia Flatley Brennan 

On the heels of a recent meeting with our Project HealthDesign teams, we’ve been thinking a lot about how this Pioneer-funded national program has the potential to affect the way providers and patients share information that has personal and clinical relevance – and what that information may include. It’s interesting stuff.

 

Patients participating in Project HealthDesign studies are using technology to track personally meaningful information about their daily feelings, thoughts, moods and behaviors – or observations of daily living (ODLs) – and sharing this information with providers. Currently, nearly all of our project teams are beginning the testing phase, recruiting patients and providers to participate in the studies. Part of their task is to figure out which ODLs are relevant to share; another job is to share them in ways that are meaningful to all involved. We think the work of the teams may spark innovations in the patient-provider relationship and improve the management of chronic disease.

We’ve already learned that ODLs have the potential to provide clinicians with a richer picture of a patient’s overall health—addressing the entire continuum of care, not just acute episodes of illness.

 

We’ve also noted the complexities of tracking patient behavior and engaging clinicians to look at and act upon ODL data.

 

As we continue to track each team’s progress, we anticipate results that will help patients, technology leaders, policymakers and health care experts plan and implement new initiatives that put individuals and their needs at the center of the nation’s health information technology infrastructure.

Follow the work of our research teams as we report on their major breakthroughs and challenges, and learn more about the exciting work our Project HealthDesign teams are undertaking here.