title: Increasing the Capacity of Primary Care Through Enabling Technology.
abstract: Primary care is the foundation of effective and high-quality health care. The role of primary care clinicians has expanded to encompass coordination of care across multiple providers and management of more patients with complex conditions. Enabling technology has the potential to expand the capacity for primary care clinicians to provide integrated, accessible care that channels expertise to the patient and brings specialty consultations into the primary care clinic. Furthermore, technology offers opportunities to engage patients in advancing their health through improved communication and enhanced self-management of chronic conditions. This paper describes enabling technologies in four domains (the body, the home, the community, and the primary care clinic) that can support the critical role primary care clinicians play in the health care system. It also identifies challenges to incorporating these technologies into primary care clinics, care processes, and workflow.
authors.affiliation: Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, UC Davis Health System, Sacramento, CA, 95817, USA. hmyoung@ucdavis.edu.
authors.forename: Heather M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Young
authors.affiliation: UC Davis Health System, Davis, CA, USA.|Family and Community Medicine, UC Davis, Davis, CA, USA.|Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Nesbitt
mesh_terms: D020811:Biomedical Technology / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends; D019033:Delivery of Health Care, Integrated / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D000072638:Patient Portals; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends; D012657:Self-Help Groups / Q000458:organization & administration; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends
keywords: mHealth; patient portal; primary care; sensors; technology; telehealth