Coupling direct collection of health risk information from patients through kiosks with decision support for proactive care management.

Data collection from patients for use in clinical decision making is foundational for medical practice. Increasingly, kiosks are being used to facilitate direct data collection from patients. However, kiosk-collected data are generally not integrated into the care process. In this project, 4,014 people initiated a kiosk-administered health risk assessment questionnaire using a free-standing public-access kiosk. For 201 of these initiated sessions, kiosk users supplied a Medicaid identification number which allowed their data to be integrated into a regional health information exchange and reviewed by a standards-based clinical decision support system. This system identified 479 survey responses which had been predetermined to warrant follow-up. Notices about these sentinel responses were emailed to care managers and sent to clinical sites. While this study demonstrates the feasibility of collecting and acting on patient-entered health data, it also identifies key challenges to providing proactive care management in this manner.