Fostering Bilateral Patient-Clinician Engagement in Active Self-Tracking of Subjective Experience

TL;DR

This paper explores how combining technology and collaborative methods can enhance bilateral engagement between patients and clinicians in active self-tracking of subjective health experiences, exemplified through a PTSD case study.

Contribution

It introduces a collaborative approach to self-tracking that fosters patient-clinician engagement and demonstrates its benefits through a detailed PTSD case study.

Findings

High-resolution self-tracking data enables better identification of symptom triggers.

Collaborative protocol design increases patient engagement in self-tracking.

Clinician involvement in data discussion enhances therapeutic insights.

Abstract

In this position paper we describe select aspects of our experience with health-related self-tracking, the data generated, and processes surrounding those. In particular we focus on how bilateral patient-clinician engagement may be fostered by the combination of technology and method. We exemplify with a case study where a PTSD-suffering veteran has been self-tracking a specific symptom precursor. The availability of high-resolution self-tracking data on the occurrences of even a single symptom created new opportunities in the therapeutic process for identifying underlying triggers of symptoms. The patient was highly engaged in self-tracking and sharing the collected data. We suggest a key reason was the collaborative effort in defining the data collection protocol and discussion of the data. The therapist also engaged highly in the self-tracking data, as it supported the existing therapeutic process in reaching insights otherwise unobtainable.