The research involves the use of IT to develop an interface that allows older people to view their patient information across primary, secondary and social care. Basing the development of a pilot on earlier work in multimedia and on a prototype in Mental Health, the new research will develop an interface specifically for older people. The information from this work will be used to develop both a care plan system and then a life chart for each individual older person. Each person’s life chart will investigate the patient’s journey and give information on their appointments, in hospital and at the GP, contact people, future dates and results of tests. Scrolling forward or backward will reveal events in the past or planned for the future. The further development of the system will allow drilling down to find further information on each event, from the underlying legacy systems. The charts will be especially developed to cater for the individual user, using a series of requirements and preferences based on earlier multimedia research on areas such as vision, colour, layout and content. HCI considerations to be determined include the screen format, text size, icons and colour use, personal preferences and the basic default settings. The graphical presentation will be easy to understand and the client/patient will be able to change or request specific stylistic requirements such as screen and text sizes, specific colour of displays and the amount of information shown. Health professionals and older people will develop the basic system and this will overlay the underlying legacy systems.
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