Designing a Patient-Centered Notification System into a PHR.

Personal health records could help patients overcome the anxiety related to gaps on health related information. The objective of this research was to explore what type of information was perceived by patients as useful to receive as a notification on their PHR as a framework for the design of a patient-centered notification system. We applied a qualitative approach followed by usability tests. From interviews to patients, we obtained main categories of notifications to include according to its perceived usefulness while, from iterative usability tests, we obtained a final version of prototypes developed according to patient-interface interaction experiences. This research helped us to understand patients needs and behavior to design an efficient notification system and also represents the first step for the development of clinical decision support systems for patients into the PHR with the potential to improve clinical outcomes and healthcare delivery.