We have designed Patient Online Account user interface for Health Care IT Systems Center (CSIOZ), the unit of the Ministry of Health of Poland.
The Patient Online Account, accessible via pacjent.gov.pl website, will serve as online health card for each citizen of Poland. All information about doctor visits, prescriptions, drugs prescribed and bought, referrals to and completed tests will be gradually brought online.
Some of the features referred to above are already available on the website. You can log in using Trusted Profile (digital signature and authentication method used for contacts with public administration in Poland) or electronic banking systems of many Polish banks.
The Patient Online Account service is a gigantic IT undertaking. It is build in stages — currently development work is planned to last until 2020.
Stage 0 — the concept of final design.
The goal of the first stage of the project was to create different concepts of user’s interface to depicture the final look of the system with all expected features. We did not know all system-related conditions at this time. It was about working out the general idea to be accepted by the Ministry of Health. Finally, we developed two concepts:
- “Timeline” version — based on a timeline of medical history of each user (doctor visits, tests and medical examinations, treatments and procedures etc.). Each medical event has relevant documents attached to it, such as prescriptions and referrals or tests’ results.
- “Dashboard” version — based on showing information in a form of widgets.
During this stage we also recommended the name of service domain and color selection. The client decided to choose ”Timeline” version. It was agreed that system's visual design should refer to the style of the new government’s website — gov.pl.
Stage 1 — e-prescriptions.
The first production sprint was about designing e-prescription functionality — one of the key e-services implemented as a part of ongoing digitalization process of Polish health care sector.
E-version of paper prescription enables patients to buy their medications in a more simplified way. Now, each doctor may issue prescriptions in an electronic form. As a consequence, pharmacy workers will have no trouble in deciphering doctor’s recommendations and the patient is secured against loosing prescription. This translates to many important benefits for all involved in the process of writing (medical staff), filling (patients, pharmacies), controlling and clearing (the state) prescriptions.
As of the 1st January 2020 all prescriptions in Poland will have to be in an electronic form.
In addition to the aforesaid functionality the first stage was about working out the general design rules i.e. the navigation, scaling the website to different resolutions (RWD), planning the development of the user interface etc.
It was very important to assure accessibility of the website for all devices and for all users, including those handicapped: for instance, those with some sort of vision impairment (compliance with WCAG requirements).
Stage 2 — visits, referrals, medications, authorizations.
This stage was about adding some more useful functionalities to the system, such as history of visits and NHF-refunded hospital stays (data base of all visits to be built). Patients will be able to see the list of all referrals and status thereof. Apart from the list of prescriptions the system will provide the list of all refunded medications bought by the patient (list of all bought medications will be available as of the 1st January 2019). This will allow quick inspection of what we have bought, what dosage we have taken and when.
Moreover, we designed the method to authorize third parties to have an insight into the user’s account. The user will be able to select the scope of information such third party can see, including the time frame, documents and medical events. Furthermore, the system will provide the list of authorizations held and the list of dependents/guardians for kids’ accounts.
We can authorize any medical employee to have an insight into our medical history. He/she will instantly receive the complete information about our medical condition, treatments, medications etc. This will significantly speed up the process of diagnosis and selection of the best treatment.
Patient Online Account will be developed in further stages. The aim is to accommodate both patients and medical personnel and to improve health care level in Poland.
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