In orthopedic care many disciplines are involved before, during and after the orthopedic intervention. Interventions range from surgical to non- treatment, including physiotherapy, pain medications, and a splint or brace prescription. Where care traditionally is organised to optimize professional efficiency for each discipline separately, this may hamper the overall quality, experience, value and flow of care for the patient. The purpose of this project is to develop knowledge for the design and implementation of networked care in orthopedics, and will focus on hand-wrist orthopaedics in particular. Besides diagnosing, treating acquired hand and wrist pathology is challenging. Concerning instability and complaints in the wrist there is an international debate in progress, in which two main streams are right to each other.
- Diagnosing and treatment based on imaging and invasive diagnostics measurement
- Diagnosing and treatment based on psychosocial patient characteristics
In this human-centered project, the requirements from a sociotechnical system's perspective are taken as a starting point, taking both streams into account, with the various actors (i.e. patient, caregiver, health professionals, employers) in the network able to add value for the patient at different moments.
About your roleThe goals of the project will be achieved through: (1) Investigating the needs, values, facilitators and barriers of all stakeholders involved in networked orthopedic care, by using human-centered design and human factors research techniques (i.e. a sociotechnical system perspective including stakeholder mapping, context mapping and patient journey mapping). (2) Developing a theoretical framework for networked care in orthopedics and identify opportunities for digital support; and (3) Developing, prototyping and evaluating support for networked care in orthopedics.
This PhD will result in knowledge of contextual challenges and information needs for the implementation of networked care in orthopedics, an evaluated proposal for the implementation of networked care in othopedics, and guidance for designers, end-users and policy makers on the implementation of networked care in orthopedics.