Clinician-Focused Connected Health Requirements Gathering for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Through Clinical Journey Mapping: Design Science Study

Abstract Background Many health care systems globally face severe capacity issues, with lengthening waiting lists and stretched resources. Connected health has been proposed as a game changer for health care. However, the development of connected health apps is difficult and requires multidisciplinary development teams. Patient journey mapping presents an opportunity to streamline the requirements-gathering process for such apps by clearly showing the patient journey to team members who are not familiar with relevant clinical practices. This research project focuses on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as a case study for using clinical journey mapping to represent the “gold standard” care pathway for ADHD treatment; the Dundee Clinical Care Pathway. This pathway was analyzed in detail and was further explored in discussions with stakeholders to produce a patient journey map. Objective The objective of this paper is to answer three research questions: (1) visualizing the Dundee ADHD clinical care pathway using integrated patient journey mapping and exploring how its use benefits multidisciplinary development teams; (2) optimizing the integrated patient journey map arising from the Dundee Clinical Care Pathway, in line with the underlying clinical realities of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service in Ireland; and (3) proposing areas where connected health integration can deliver efficiency and substantial gains for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. Methods This study uses a design science approach where a sample artifact is presented to a relevant audience for review and feedback and is then leveraged to work iteratively toward an improved, final artifact. This paper presents the feedback collected from both information systems and clinical professionals at each iteration of the map. Results This research delivers a comprehensive clinical patient journey map based on the Dundee clinical care pathway. Using unified modeling language concepts and color coding, multiple patient personas are mapped onto a streamlined diagram, allowing the diagram, at an abstract level, to cover the most typical clinical scenarios. Conclusions Clinical journey mapping provides a way for team members to get up to speed on clinical practices, while also presenting a way for development teams to identify key gaps where connected health systems can be embedded in clinical pathways to optimize the use of clinical resources and ultimately deliver better patient outcomes.