eHealth: Using Technology to Support Health and Wellness

 

A public engagement project that promotes eHealth awareness and use for patient and family centered care in BC.

 

Vision: Using eHealth to support patient and family centred care in BC

 

Mission: To engage and enable BC residents, families and communities to take charge of and manage their own health through the informed and appropriate use of eHealth tools.  To equip BC citizens with the knowledge and skills needed to meaningfully partner with health professionals for optimal self and family care.

 

Goals:

  1. To promote eHealth awareness through education and use by building skills through a comprehensive multimedia strategy.
  2. To track and support BC residents’ journeys across the eHealth literacy continuum.
  3. To facilitate ongoing collaboration with patients, the public and healthcare providers to enhance healthcare access and outcomes in BC through eHealth.

 

Project Timeline: April 2014 – August 2016

 

Project Activities and Highlights:

 

  1. Defining an e-patient for BC: Drafting a definition of what an e-patient should and could do in BC.
  • Purpose: To have a vision to work toward.
  • Results: This definition is used to guide and plan project activities. We want to foster these strengths in people across BC.

 

The e-patient in B.C. is equipped with the knowledge, skills and confidence to manage their own health and wellness. They are engaged and enabled to take ownership of and make choices about their own care and know how to access and discern electronic health information and tools. They are aware of and appropriately use B.C. specific eHealth resources. B.C. e-patients contribute their observations, experiences and expertise to support the continuing improvement of eHealth in B.C. Together, in partnership with health care providers and health policy makers, e-patients co-create better health information, services and outcomes for themselves, their friends and families, and their fellow citizens in B.C.

  

  1. eHealth Committee: Forming a committee representative of patients, health professionals and other health organizations in BC to guide and inform the project work.

 

  1. Health-e-Checkups: Creating and testing an interactive, hands-on exhibit where participants are guided by a “health passport” and walk from station to station to learn more about online resources and apps available to help measure and track various health indicators such as weight and blood pressure.
  • Purpose: To introduce and discuss the topic of eHealth and eHealth literacy with participants.
  • Results: More than 60 people attended the live webinar event, with other accessing the recording after the fact. Chat and polling results indicated participants are interested in attending future events.

 

  1. Health-e-Apps: A series of health and wellness app reviews done by Dr. Kendall Ho. Dr. Ho provides information about who should be using the app and how they can use it to support their health care. Various health topics such as sleep, medication tracking, food logging and heart monitoring are featured.

 

  1. What is eHealth Webinar: Giving a presentation on eHealth hosted by the Patient’s as PartnersPatient Voices Network.
    • Purpose: To introduce and discuss the topic of eHealth and eHealth literacy with participants.
    • Results: More than 60 people attended the live webinar event, with other accessing the recording after the fact. Chat and polling results indicated participants are interested in attending future events.

 

  1. What is eHealth Animated Video: Producing a short animated video tointroduce and define eHealth. We will be building on this video to create a series of videos about the various aspects of eHealth.

 

Visit our project page here: http://ehealth.med.ubc.ca/projects/ehealth-using-technology-for-health-and-wellness/