CCTOS: Communication Strategy

• Issues:
  • Electronic messages did replace traditional postal services.  The improvement is that it works faster, but it remains depending on the good will of a sender.  Moreover the sender cannot exactly know who would need which information in the future. 
  • A message is a kind of picture at a given point in time and become quickly obsolete.  What if the patient would need care by a new Care Team member, as an emergency department ?  and what if the treatment has just been modified one day ago?
• Approaches:
  • On-line access to shared information is considered to provide the best support for collaborations between the Care Team members. 
    
  • Any new information should be recorded directly in the patient record.  In that way any authorized member of the Care Team can get it immediately.  Even a new member who has just been added in the Care Team.
  • Since in some countries Internet could be too slow and unstable, a "non blocking communication is necessary.                         
    
  • That said the possibility to receive and to send messages must remain available.  However the trend will be to reduce message to "notifications".  A notification is a kind of short message warning the addressee to pay attention at some new information relevant for him and already located in a given patient record in the database.  Such notifications will contain just a pointer and no more any medical content.
    For example when the result of a bacteriology test become available after about a day, the lab will at the same time make the result available in the patient record and send a notification to the author of the request.