Two of the five Danish regions, covering close to half of the population, are
in the process of implementing a new EHR system. One of its sub-systems is a patient
portal. The work-in-progress reported here is an exploratory study and a first level of
analysis concerned with why, how and with which effects patients start to orient
themselves towards this subsystem, and the degree to which this has an effect on the
clinicians’ work. The overall approach is a multi-site ethnographic study involving 5
patients and 3 nurses responsible for a rehabilitation program for ischemic heart patients.
Data are being collected through artifact and document analysis, and by interviews and
observations in patients’ homes and in nurses’ offices over so far 6 months. The analysis
is informed by medical phenomenology and by conceptual frameworks developed in
earlier projects conducted by the author’s research group. The preliminary findings
include that patients and clinicians do see the potentials of the portal, but in order to
harvest these potentials we recommend rethinking the functionality and the
implementation strategy, including training of patients and clinical staff.
Introduction