The electronic Discharge Letter (eDL) mobile app

Leonardo Lezcano*, Michel Triana#, Bridget Maher+, Pat Henn+, Carola Orrego=, Lina Stieger^, Hanna Schroeder^, Susanne Druener^, Sasa Sopka^ and Marcus Specht*

* Open University of the Netherlands (Netherlands), # JM Family Enterprises, Inc. (US), + University College, Cork (Ireland), = Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain), ^ University Hospital, Aachen, (Germany)

Focused Track: Simplificator

Discharge letters are important issues to consider when ensuring patient safety as they represent the transfer of patient care from one care-giver to another in a time of particular risk for medical errors. Nowadays, paper based letters, unstructured texts, unstandardized diagnosis, language barriers, incompleteness and ambiguity make discharge letters a breakpoint in the clinical information workflow that must be addressed. This paper presents the "Electronic Discharge Letter (eDL) mobile app" as a revolutionary approach to transfer eDLs and prevent the above-mentioned complications. A seamless exchange between doctors, specialists and patients is technically supported by the app through the Near Field Communication standards. To achieve semantic interoperability, the eDL app combines the CLAS scale for discharge letters with nine clinical terminologies and linked data sources. It encourages the adoption of a handover standard and the integration with healthcare systems. In addition, the eDL app contributes to patient empowerment by offering multilingual definitions and translations of clinical concepts from terminology/ontology mappings rather than text-based searches. It automatically raises allergy alerts based on current prescriptions and previous diagnosis, all of which will ultimately improve the continuity of care, and simplify doctors' workflow and patient decisions. The app potential for mobile learning in healthcare settings should be also considered.

Demo video: http://youtu.be/bAT0JKPPZu4