Chronic Disease Management: Improving Continuity of Care with Human Factors Engineering

Abstract

The management of chronic disease by patients in the home care setting can involve a varied and complex set of tasks. Food allergy, a chronic and potentially life-threatening condition, is used as a case study to explore the role that human factors engineering can play to improve the continuity of care of patients. In order to gain insight into the cognitive demands involved in the management of this chronic disease, a cognitive task analysis was conducted to identify and characterize the critical decision making tasks confronting food allergy patients. This can provide valuable input to the design and development of tools and resources for use by the clinical practitioner and patient alike. Such tools can: assist the clinical practitioner with teaching patients; assist patients in daily tasks involved in managing their condition; and assist patients (or their families) in teaching others who may care for a pediatric patient with food allergy. It is hoped that such an improvement in continuity of care can lead to better disease management by patients.