Peter is a 70-year old male who has recently been provided with a new artificial hip at Zuyderland Medical Centre (ZMC). After a short stay at the hospital, Peter is dismissed and sent home to complete his recovery there. There he can already view his medical data related to his injury and operations in his account in his Personal Health Environment (PHE).
To ensure Peter’s recovery, the physician has ordered physiotherapy and the use of a motion tracker called the Activity Monitor with an E-coach. Prior to his surgery Peter has already used the Activity Monitor, to measure his mobility before the hip replacement. The Activity Monitor is a very precise instrument that measures if and how well a patient is active at a validated clinical level.
The data gather through the Activity Monitor and his electronic patient records are not only relevant for the orthopedic surgeon, but also for the physiotherapist. Therefore, the physiotherapist asks Peter if he will allow him to see all relevant medical files from the hospital and the results from the Activity Monitor. They agree that Peter will automatically share the files regarding the surgery and the daily results on the E-coach. Informed consent to share the data with the physiotherapist is given through Peter’s Personal Health Environment.
The results will become available to the physician via the E-coach or the patient record of Peter in ZMC. To Peter himself they become available via his Personal Health Environment on his computer or mobile device. The results from the Activity Monitor are shared with the physiotherapist via Peter’s Personal Heath Environment. Each day a trained nurse can then evaluate the stored results in the Electronic Patient Record (EPR) of Peter in ZMC and can take actions accordingly.Peter finds it hard to get up from a chair or bed. Based on the results, the physiotherapist concludes this and makes a plan to improve this action.
He tells the nurse to contact Peter and prolong the Activity Monitor until his 6 weeks follow-up session at the hospital, because further progress still needs to be monitored. The next few week show improvement. The physician acknowledges this improvement and orders a digital consult with Peter via his E-coach for his standard 6-weeks follow-up. There is no need to see him physically. Peter will be asked to transfer the data from his physiotherapist to his physician when his physiotherapy has ended. Peter agrees and transfers the physiotherapy journal to his Personal Health Environment and to ZMC for the physician.