PRODOC: An Electronic Patient Record to foster process-oriented practices

Abstract

The paper presents PRODOC, an Electronic Document System that allows users to navigate documental artifacts according to predefined process maps. In fact in PRODOC, process models are to be considered as maps that users willingly take as guide for their decisions and actions, rather than scripts prescribed from above. The main tenet of this research is that, by integrating documents and processes, documental practices and related work practices could better align to intended models of action. The underlying concept is the result of a long empirical research in the healthcare domain, where we have deployed PRODOC as an innovative and process-oriented Electronic Patient Record. The user participation in the phase of document definition and clinical processes modeling is central in our approach and it is illustrated in three scenarios of the software informal validation that we present in this paper.