title: Information persistence services designed to support home care.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Due to the challenges faced by health and social care systems, in particular those related to actual demographic trends, home care emerges as a potentially cost-effective solution to answer the needs of citizens, and to allow the reallocation of resources to alternatives to hospitalization or institutionalization.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Home care services require cooperation between different actors, including health and social caregivers, care receivers, and their informal caregivers (eg, relatives or friends), across time, space, and organizational boundaries. Therefore, it is foreseeable that eHealth services can contribute to their improvement. The aim of this study is to evaluate information persistence services based on the Reference Information Model (RIM) of the Health Level Seven (HL7) version 3 to support formal caregivers, both health and social care providers, and informal caregivers in the context of home care services.
  
  
  METHODS
  A pilot study was set up involving two Portuguese institutions that provide home care services for the elderly. Defining of information requirements was performed according to a comprehensive process. This included a review of the literature, observations of work activities, interviews with caregivers, care receivers and their relatives, analysis of paper documentation related to care receivers' histories, health conditions and care plans, and brainstorming groups involving specialized professionals. Following this, information objects were implemented and validated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The methodological approach, as well as the information persistence services, proved to be robust and adequate to specify, implement, and validate different types of information objects related to home care services for the elderly. This study also reinforces the application of the RIM of the HL7 version 3 beyond the strict scope of health care, allowing the persistence of not only health care information, but also information related to social assistance activities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study contributes to the ongoing efforts related to the development of eHealth applications to improve the cooperation among formal health care and social caregivers, as well as care receivers and their informal caregivers.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Engenharia Electrónica e Telemática de Aveiro, Health Sciences Department, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal. npr@ua.pt.
authors.forename: Nelson Pacheco
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3801-7249
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Rocha
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3172-7400
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Queirós
authors.forename: Filipe
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4697-1649
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Augusto
authors.forename: Yosvany Llerena
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6873-8445
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7447-4944
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cardoso
authors.forename: José Miguel
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8156-5737
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Grade
authors.forename: João
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8513-2664
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Quintas
keywords: electronic health record; home help services; information management; interoperability; long-term care; personal health record