Personal Health System: A Tool to Support the Patient Empowerment

The paper presents the prototype of a Personal Health System (PHS) realized during the Smart Health 2.0 Project. This implementation, called 'LiSE', represents an evolution with respect to the Citizen's Personal Notebook, introduced and specified by the EHR Italian regulations. The PHR provides some features that simplify the relationships between key players in NHS, like health care workers and patients. The PHR tools, such as the clinical dossier, the virtual medical assistant, or the GP/patient communication system, make the patient 'closer' to the health system, improving the own knowledge about her/his illness and, consequently, making him/her part active and conscious in the care processes. The PHS is able to enrich the EHR with information on the patient's health state and, at the same time, to take advantage of information extracted from the EHR content and supplied in a language and a format accessible to the patient. The proposed PHS, equipped with its own business logic to support patient empowerment, is the key element for the construction of a health care model based on a patient-centered vision of the healthcare.