Research Hybrid Model

In developing the project’s prototype an iteration-evolutionary approach was undertaken. This involved iterations with a combination of incremental and iterative cycles. According to Cock-

34 4.3 Project Constructive Study

Figure 4.3: Evolutionary Model [12].

burn [14], each increment cycle leads to integration, while each iterative cycle also involves an examination of the current prototype. A set of any combination of integration and examinations can be followed when both models are used for the system development. Figure 4.4 shows an example of a possible combination of both models that can be used.

Figure 4.4: Putting Iterative and Incremental Development Together [14].

As this is a research project, continuous loops of revisions were conducted. This meant, linear development methodologies were not appropriate. Iterative approaches which ranged across: incremental, iterative, and prototyping were followed, as follows:

4.3 Project Constructive Study 35

2. Divide the overall requirements into a set of increments. This is the first stage of the incremental, iterative, and prototypingcycles.

3. Define the requirements for each increment.

4. Implement a version for the first/current increment. 5. Revise the increment to satisfy its requirements.

6. Refine the requirement for the developed increment (if needed). 7. Improve the version of the developed increment (if needed).

8. Repeat step 5-7 until satisfied with the result. This is the last step of a prototyping cycle. 9. Repeat steps 4-8 until all increments defined in step 3 are implemented. This is the last

step of the Incremental cycle.

10. Revise the the overall result against the overall requirements defined in step 1.

11. Refine/evolve the overall requirements and follow steps 2-11 again (if needed). This is the last step of the iterative cycle.

In our case we analysed the ICP of the breast cancer scenario and specified the stages within the flow that require support or attention. Each of these stages was considered as an increment. Examples of the stages include: referral, notification, alert, and setting timers (See section 10.2). Each of these increment were added to the flow in the order they appear in the ICP.

Each of the increments representing an important stage, was added to the flow.Then each went through an iterative loop for functionality and presentation enhancement. The referral, for ex- ample, was first added to the main stream to refer to an oncologist. This was followed by an improvement to select a specific oncologist which then got improved to also include a referral letter to the oncologist.

The resulting prototype was discussed with the CIU team at Velindre. They suggested the addition of the scheduling functionality in between treatment to allow a time gap. This inclusion required an evolutionary cycle to include this functionality in the flow stage when it was needed.

37

Chapter 5

Healthcare System

Overview

This chapter aims to explain the problem domain; the current situation and modernisation vis- ion. Obstacles hindering the transition and guidelines to address these obstacles will also be explained. This is being presented to show the current situation as the environment which the research proposal is addressing. Understanding the process within the environment is essential as this is the process to be supported by the workflow system.

The chapter explains the healthcare system and its structure. It also presents the government plans to modernise the NHS across the UK, which is the underpinning initiator for this project. Moreover, related concepts to the emerging new NHS plans such as: patient-centric, ICP, and MDTs will be presented. Communication and coordination obstacles in the healthcare system and their related concerns in addition to approaches to tackle these issues will be discussed. This chapter concludes with a list of requirements needed to support team communication and care coordination in a patient-centric approach. These are considered in the following research and analysis of possible approaches.

38 5.2 Healthcare System

5.1

Introduction

To understand the research problem fully, we give an overview of the current scene in the health- care domain. This includes the healthcare system, the traditional healthcare delivery vision, and its modernisation plan. Concepts which have evolved as a result of the introduction of the mod- ern NHS plan will be introduced, such as: patient-centric, ICPs, and MDTs. Communication and coordination obstacles and their related concerns within the healthcare system in addition to approaches to tackle these issues will be discussed.

5.2

Healthcare System

The NHS is the publicly funded healthcare system in the UK. It provides three levels of care to patients: primary, secondary and tertiary. These different levels involve many different organ- isations (e.g. Emergency and Urgent Care, NHS Trust, Care Trust, GP Surgeries, Pharmacies, Dental Practices, Opticians [75, 76]). Patients usually visit their GPs initially and are then referred on by their GPs to a general hospital for a second diagnosis when specialist care is needed. The healthcare system has its own characteristics, these are:

• Complex organisational structure: the organisational structure within the healthcare sys- tem has many and different components at different levels [77, 78]. These are located at different sites and often have different clinical systems. The different organisations within the three healthcare levels require effective inter-organisational as well as intra- organisational communication tools to ensure they allow exchange of medical informa- tion.

• Many communication paths: the number of communication channels in a healthcare set- ting is large and increases with the growing number of individuals involved in the system. • Different means of communication: the multi-professional care team members use differ- ent means of communication to communicate, some use synchronous and others asyn- chronous communication tools. Synchronous communication tools are based on data exchange between communicating parties at the same site, such as: telephone calls and face-to-face chat [79]. Informal and formal asynchronous communication tools are based on archived data exchange between communicating parties at different sites, such as: e- mails and discharge summaries [79].

5.3 Modern NHS 39

different expertise using different languages and terminologies as their standards to de- scribe conditions.

• Long treatment process: the treatment process can and often does last as long as the patient lives.

• Treatment process not determined from end to end: each patient’s treatment is different as many elements affect the treatment plan including; the current health state of the patient (medications and treatments undertaken), age, sex, medical history, response to treatment, and patient’s choice. This requires flexibility in the support system.

• Iterative processes: the treatment processes go through iterations where special condi- tions should be checked and met before the flow of a treatment pathway continues. • Prioritised activities: some activities are urgent and need quick responses. Here the

traditional communication policies should be replaced with emergency communication policies to prevent any negative consequences that can affect patients due to delays [80, 81, 64].

• Joint activities: in a collaborative working environment, joint decision support tools such as electronic patient records and order entry systems are increasingly needed [79, 82]. The need for intelligent systems is always highlighted to support the collaboration in a complex healthcare environment that involves different individuals in different sites . • Sensitive data and information: security is a very important element associated with med-

ical data and information. Here secured data exchange between individuals, departments and organisations should be guaranteed. Moreover, the accuracy of the data is very im- portant as any inaccuracy can cause adverse events to occur. Mistakes within the domain can be life threatening.

5.3

Modern NHS

There has been a move worldwide to modernise healthcare systems. Many strategies and pro- jects have been presented and introduced for this purpose. Related research also has been in- tensively published to discuss and analyse this modernising vision, its implementation, and its implications. The UK NHS was formed in 1948, since then spending has increased throughout the years but not enough to modernise the entire healthcare service [83, 68]. In the late 1990’s, the UK government decided to invest in the NHS in order to modernise and reform it for the 21st century. It was announced that this will be by being a healthcare service designed around the patient [83, 68].

40 5.3 Modern NHS

The new plan aimed to meet patent’s expectations for: improved techniques, better paid staff, less waiting times, better quality of patient-centred care, and improved healthcare centres and hospitals [83, 68]. This budget settlement also meant that the NHS was to grow by one third in size by 2005, by increasing the number of organisations and healthcare providers [83, 68]. The reform plan’s aims included: reducing waiting times, improving healthcare service, and intro- ducing new services to patients, such as [83, 68]: setting national standards, ensuring equality, improving collaboration between the social services and NHS, better contracts for GPs and hos- pital doctors as well as nurses and NHS staff, empowering patients, setting up public-private healthcare provider partnerships to give better use of facilities, and investment in staff and fa- cilities.

The new NHS plans introduced new concepts, some of these concepts will be introduced in the following sections. The concepts covered are those affecting this research study.

5.3.1

Patient-Centric

For the last 50 years, a disease-centred delivery model has prevailed in medicine [83, 68], and healthcare systems were designed for this delivery model. However, recently, there has been strong support worldwide to change the healthcare delivery model from a disease-centred to a patient-centred approach, where care provision focuses on treating the whole patient rather than managing separate diseases. It is particularly valuable for the management of “difficult- to-treat” patients [84, 61]. The term patient-centric care used throughout this thesis refers to - a collaborative teamwork practice around the needs of a patient’s care with all healthcare providers caring for a shared patient. In order for the healthcare providers to work as a team in this context, accurate, up to date and relevant medical information about the patient needs to be provided and shared fully at the point of care.

There is worldwide agreement on the importance and the need to provide a patient-centred care to patients [85]. Countries including the UK [68, 83], the United States [86, 87], Canada [88], Australia [89], Netherlands [66], Japan [67], and Saudi Arabia [90, 91] are among these adopting the patient-centred concept.

5.3.2

MDT

Depending on the diagnosis, the patient might be referred to a MDT multidisciplinary team [92], also called multidisciplinary medical teams and interdisciplinary teams. MDT meetings bring together specialists from different domains to discuss the management of patients with a given condition or disease. The MDT members plan the treatment of patients discussed in an MDT

5.3 Modern NHS 41

meeting, however, they are not necessarily the team who actually treat this patient in clinics. The outcome of an MDT meeting is usually a consensus agreement on the treatment strategy that is informed by the combined experience of the team. MDT meetings also help share best practice among the professionals at the meeting.

The use of MDTs is worldwide, in that examples can be found in the UK [93, 94], the United States [95, 96], Canada [97], Australia [98, 99], Netherlands [100], Japan[101], and Saudi Ara- bia [90, 91].

5.3.3

ICP

Since the creation of the NHS in 1948 it was up to the healthcare authorities to decide the level of treatment to be provided to patients. In 1990, during the period of the internal market, it was down to the GP practice’s choice, as competition between healthcare trusts to reduce cost and increase quality was encouraged by the government [102, 103, 104]. This changed in the late 1990s when the National Service Framework (NSF) [105] and NICE [1] were introduced to set national strategies and standards for treatments and patient care.

NSF is a national service which sets care quality requirements for major medical problems such as Cancer, Stroke, Mental Health, Diabetes, and Heart Diseases [105]. It also sets requirements for special groups such as children and older people. This is based on best evidence and is developed in partnership with healthcare professionals, patients, carers, managers, voluntary agencies and other experts [105].

Patient treatment is delivered through an ICP in a modern healthcare delivery model, where ICPs are “structured multidisciplinary care plans, which detail essential steps in the care of pa- tients with a specific clinical problem” [106]. Clinical guidelines, also called clinical protocol, clinical practice guidelines, and medical guidelines, are based on best practice and are produced in consultation with health and care providers, patients, and the public. ICPs incorporate local and national guidelines into everyday practice to reduce variation in clinical practice and con- trol the quality of care provided to patients across multi-disciplinary and multi-agency teams in different healthcare organisations [18]. Moreover, it has been shown that following guidelines improves efficiency and cost-effectiveness of care without adversely affecting the patient and their treatment [107, 108]. Guidelines help in changing the clinician’s behaviour, and are ex- tremely effective in helping clinicians agree on a treatment plan and options, and they also support the decision making process [108]. Examples of guidance on the ICPs used in the NHS in the UK can be found in the ICP National Library for Health [109] published by NICE [1], Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network [18], as well as the recently released guidelines in the MoM [23]. Worldwide clinical guideline resources include: the US - National Guideline