Sara Heath
Tech Target Patient Engagement
Patient and family advisory councils (PFACs) aren’t just a hospital mainstay anymore, as health IT vendors host them to gain user insights.
Patient and family advisory councils are starting to find new homes in unexpected places: health IT companies.
PFACs are historically common fixtures in hospitals and health systems. But as the industry continues to embrace a consumer-obsessed approach to patient engagement, that mindset is translating from care sites to the vendors that supply them.
The patient voice isn’t just important for shaping care management; it’s also important for designing the tools that assist with that care management.
Healthcare’s digital transformation means there’s a growing suite of tools, such as patient portals or online provider search and appointment scheduling systems, that directly serve patients. Getting patients’ user intel about how these systems work can give designers the insights necessary to make improvements.
While health IT companies might conduct extensive user testing and focus grouping, adding PFACs is new territory for most developers. How are health IT vendors approaching this new world of patient feedback?
Continue reading the full story here on Patient Engagement.
