Designing for collaborative interpretation in telemonitoring: Re-introducing patients as diagnostic agents

PURPOSE We investigate why clinicians experience problems interpreting implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) data when the patient is absent, and we explore how to re-introduce patients into the socio-technical setup of telemonitored interpretation practices. METHOD An action research study with a design interventionist perspective was conducted to investigate the telemonitoring arrangement for chronic heart patients with ICDs and to identify the nature of the collaborative practices involved in ICD data interpretation. We diagnose the main challenges involved in collaborative interpretation practices. These insights were used to re-design the socio-technical setup of the telemonitoring practices by designing and building a web-based, patient-centric, collaborative application, myRecord, to re-introduce the patients as active participants into the telemonitoring setup. Finally, we introduce myRecord at Copenhagen University Hospital and evaluate the new practices and the collaborative technology related to the transformed role of the patients. RESULTS The interpretation of ICD data is a collaborative practice engaging clinicians and patients and involving three separate collaborative processes: interpretation of numbers; interpretation of general condition; and patient's interpretation of own condition and ICD data. In a collocated setup, these three interpretation processes are entangled and seamlessly interrelated. However, in the current telemonitoring setup, only the interpretation of numbers process is fully supported, neglecting the two other processes, and, in particular, the role of the patient. By re-introducing patients into the socio-technical setup of telemonitoring through myRecord, our design acknowledges the collaborative nature of the interpretation process. However, re-introducing patients transforms their role, and leads to new transformed telemonitoring practices, different from both the current telemonitoring setup as well as from the collocated setup. CONCLUSION Telemonitoring practices of patients with ICDs involve three entangled collaborative processes, whereas the existing socio-technical setup only mediate one. myRecord is designed as an add-on collaborative technology to mediate the two remaining collaborative processes. We argue that myRecord solves some of the problems with ICD data interpretation inherent in telemonitoring practices by providing a collaborative, asynchronous space for healthcare practitioners and patients to mediate the two processes that are otherwise lost. Our new socio-technical design also transforms the role of patients considerably, thus new studies should take these insights into consideration.