Using an interdisciplinary approach to develop a knowledge-driven careflow management system for collaborative patient-centred palliative care

In this paper, we give a work-in-progress report of an interdisciplinary partnership among academic researchers, a regional health authority and an industry partner to develop a web-based platform to support a collaborative approach to hospice palliative care. The needs of such a collaborative, community based and patient and family centred program are outlined with emphasis on the guiding principles, as espoused by the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association. The research initiatives to develop a leading edge knowledge-driven web-based communication, documentation and process management platform, a so-called careflow management system, to support such a program are detailed. Considerations required by an industry partner to ensure such a platform is commercializable are discussed. The long term goal is to inject science into software by providing tools which are sensitive to local conditions, are flexible enough to adapt to changes on the fly, are easily refactored to adapt to diverse settings and can support the evolving electronic health record systems.