Patient Engagement - overview
The Patient Engagement project in the Social Computing Group is investigating how to improve quality of care and reduce costs by capturing, analyzing, and acting on the new stream of data available from mobile phones, medical monitoring devices, and on-line social networks. We are investigating how measured patient characteristics (such as readiness to self-manage, self-efficacy, depression, personality characteristics, and technology familiarity) can be combined with provider protocols for managing chronic diseases to specify a customized behavior plan. Behavioral and health data will be compared against the patient’s care plan and protocols that specify expected trajectories. Based on this analysis, technology-mediated communications are used to help the patient stay on track and may offer customized challenges towards health goals. This project is part of the Coordinated Care solution for the IBM Health Care Industry, Patient engagement and patient-reported data will play an increasing role in helping providers meet new government-mandated standards.