United Hospital Fund of New York

Patient portals and dashboards have gained popularity in recent years as ways to engage people as active participants in their health care by providing them access to their own health information.

The information typically in portals and dashboards is important, but these tools usually have been designed primarily with the provider—not the patient—in mind. They can be confusing and contain jargon and clinical information that is not understandable or meaningful to patients, leaving patients poorly equipped to use this technology as a way to actively participate in their own health care. In 2019, NYHealth awarded United Hospital Fund of New York (UHF) a grant to help develop a patient-centered dashboard for patients to manage their health in partnership with their providers.

Under this grant, UHF brought together patients and primary care providers to co-develop the “How’s My Health Dashboard,” a prototype for an electronic, interactive, patient-portal model that is developed with the patient in mind. Patients provided input on the type of information that helps them assess the quality of the care they receive, capture preferences for how they want care to be delivered, and track personal goals. Providers provided input on how the dashboard can be used to share risks and benefits of various treatments with patients and to facilitate shared clinical decision-making. UHF partnered with Mount Sinai St. Luke’s hospital to create a dashboard prototype for two chronic conditions, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, where a patient’s treatment preferences and what constitutes a successful outcome may differ from a provider’s perspective. Patients with these chronic conditions were recruited and met over the course of the project to discuss the types of information and information-display preferences to be included in the prototype. Once the dashboard prototype was developed, UHF gathered additional feedback from and conducted user-testing with the patients. Finally, UHF developed an issue brief with recommendations on the further development of the prototype, approaches for its broad applicability, and sustainable integration of patient-centered dashboards into routine care.