Health Portal

International Journal of Web Portals, 4(4), 1-18, October-December 2012 1

Health Portal:

An Alternative Using Open Source Technology Carlos J. Costa, Instituto Universitario de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), ADETTI-IUL, Lisboa, Portugal Manuela Aparicio, Instituto Universitario de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), ADETTI-IUL, Lisboa, Portugal Joao Paulo Figueiredo, Instituto Universitario de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), ADETTI-IUL, Lisboa, Portugal

ABSTRACT The authors’ study proposes a conceptual model for a health portal user-centered using a calendar interface paradigm. The aim of this proposal intends to use an insight of a patient when interacting with the health services. In order to promote a well-known user reality, the authors adapt a calendar paradigm. The users’ type and the interaction with the system are based on a stakeholder analysis. A state of the art analysis was made to several health portals, from which resulted the identification of the main features in order to shape the proposed concept. From these initial studies we propose a conceptual model of a health portal focused on the users’ needs. Its implementation was performed using a Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS), more specifically a content management system (CMS). This study also includes the preliminary results of a survey conducted to a group of users. Keywords:

Calendar Paradigm, Conceptual Model, Content Management System (CMS), Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS), Health Portal, Open Source

1. INTRODUCTION In this present era an increasing need for online services are demanded and Governments respond to that demand by integrating their services in digital platforms to provide structured and optimized information and services. New means of communicating with patients may help to create higher operational efficiency. To ensure cost reduction and to provide user satisfaction,

we need to understand what are the services that health portals provide, what can be the interactions of patients with an eHealth Portal and, also, what are the services they prefer to use through the Web. In this context, we propose a model of a health portal user-centered, with integrated contents and services, structured in the form, and adapted to the user’s wants and needs. In the center of the user interface, there will be a calendar view, containing all the events

DOI: 10.4018/jwp.2012100101 Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

2 International Journal of Web Portals, 4(4), 1-18, October-December 2012

related with the user and his relation with the Health System. The proposal begins by defining the research problem and goals that it aims to achieve, summarizes the methodological steps that are expected to be met, makes a brief review of the literature on the state of the art, proposes a conceptual model and implements a prototype.

2. METHODOLOGY In order to reach our objective of proposing a model of a health portal user-centered, we followed a research process developed in six phases. The first phase consisted in a review of the literature on web portals and contents, in particular, the contents applied to user-centered health portals. In the second phase, we identified user groups through a stakeholder analysis of a health portal (Freeman, 2010). This approach

identified stakeholders groups in order to be able to reflect their wants and needs. The third step involved the survey of the major health portals and their main features, using a qualitative research documentary study (Myers, 2008). In the fourth and fifth stages we build the Conceptual Model and implemented the prototype using a content management tool. For these phases we applied a design research methodology (Vaishnavi & Kuechler, 2004). In the sixth and last stage, we proceeded to the evaluation of the concept of a central calendar interface for a health portal. Figure 1 illustrates schematically the steps followed in this methodological approach.

3. LITERATURE REVIEW The literature review combines three approaches divided as Table 1 shows.

Figure 1. Research process

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