The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is an innovative, team-based health care model that was applied during the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). However, the competencies for PCMH health care social worker team members are not identified within this model. Thus, the purpose of this phenomenological study focused on identifying the core competencies that will enable social workers to perform competently in PCMHs. This study also explored the roles and training needs as related to improving the competence of social workers. Sandberg’s and Parry’s conceptualization of the competency model was used as the theoretical framework. Data were acquired through interviews with 10 PCMH social workers. These data were then inductively coded and analyzed using a modified Moustakas method. Key findings indicated that these social workers believed that improvements in competencies may include training and knowledge with mental health and physical health knowledge which consist of diagnoses, interventions, medications, symptoms, and terminology. It was also noted that knowledge of evidence-based practices for mental health interventions and patient-centered, team-based principles were essential to ACA policy implementation. The positive social change implications of this study include recommendations to health care leadership, educational institutions, and other PCMH providers to develop competency-based training for social workers. Recommendations are also put forth to adapt social work curriculum to ensure the effective implementation of the principles of the ACA policy and to improve social work practice in PCMH health care settings.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

O profissional de saúde ao visualizar a gravidez na adolescência como um problema de saúde a ser corrigido, torna invisível o paciente como sujeito de direitos e necessidades de cuidado. Há percepções de que as práticas no campo da Medicina estão descoladas da realidade e não atendem, ao que parece, às demandas dos usuários como sujeitos de direitos das ações em saúde. Os conhecimentos adquiridos, construídos e compartilhados foram incorporados à realidade da prática médica, porém a grande questão é saber e entender em que medida e de que forma acontece esse processo e como se relaciona com os demais envolvidos, ou seja, qual a percepção e o que prevalece ou torna-se invisível o sujeito paciente na abordagem médica às questões complexas da saúde dos indivíduos. Os objetivos desse trabalho foram desvelar as invisibilidades do sujeito paciente na questão da gravidez na adolescência sob os olhares do profissional da saúde e, consequentemente, caracterizar especificidades dos olhares do profissional da saúde na prática da assistência aos adolescentes com experiência de gravidez que os tornam invisíveis ao profissional. Para esse fim, foi adotado como procedimento metodológico a investigação cientifica da pesquisa descritiva de abordagem qualitativa, por meio da análise de conteúdo des entrevistas semi estruturadas, de aspecto geral sobre assuntos relacionados ao tema central gravidez na adolescência e a assistência médica, com perguntas comuns e consensuais que envolviam significados, ensino, a prática cotidiana e saúde pública com profissionais de saúde médicos, que trabalham com adolescentes grávidas, nos serviços da rede de saúde pública em município da Grande São Paulo, com vinculação acadêmica a Instituição de Ensino Superior. Desvelaram-se que as invisibilidades do sujeito paciente na questão da gravidez na adolescência são resultados da produção médica no cuidado ao paciente, nos valores e representações da lógica médica. Caracterizaram-se como especificidades dos olhares do profissional de saúde que invisibiliza o sujeito adolescente na prática assistencial a produção da ciência médica fundamentada na percepção de mundo para esses profissionais que conflitam com as percepções de mundo do adolescente na experiência da gravidez. A ciência médica voltada ao modelo biomédico e organicista, baseada numa tradição positivista, torna a arte médica um lugar de pouca reflexão estrutural e privilegia-se o saber instituído em detrimento de novas possibilidades do cuidado médico, onde as questões que envolvem dimensões humanas têm difícil inserção. O outro eixo está fundamentado nas percepções de modelo social de estrutura familiar tradicional e no poder em manter a ordem que a sociedade atribui ao médico. / The health professional to show teenage pregnancy as a health problem to be corrected, makes invisible the patient as a subject of rights and care needs. There are perceptions that the practices in the medical field are detached from reality and does not meet, it seems, the demands of the users as subjects of rights of health actions. The knowledge acquired, built and shared were incorporated to the reality of medical practice, but the big question is to know and understand to what extent and in what way does this process and how it relates to others involved, therefore, what the perception and what prevails or becomes invisible subject patient in medical approach to the complex issues of the health of individuals. Among the most common health guidelines, some are eligible to potentially reach a greater degree of complexity to the care and become provocative assistance gaps, which in this study called the invisibility of the subject, and one of the staves, we work with teenage pregnancy, and the invisibility of this teenager in this important moment of your life that need care and support of the health professional. The objectives of this study were to reveal the invisibilities of fellow patient on the issue of teen pregnancy in the looks of the healthcare professional and, consequently, characterize specificities of the looks of the health professionals in the practice of assistance to adolescents with pregnancy experience that makes them invisible to the professional. For this purpose, was adopted as methodological procedure scientific research of qualitative research, through the analysis of semi structured interviews, General aspect on subjects related to the central theme teen pregnancy and medical assistance, with common questions and consensual involving meanings, teaching, daily practice and public health with medical health professionals, who work with pregnant adolescents services public health network in municipality of greater São Paulo, academic affiliation with the Medical Education Institution. Was unveiled that the invisibility of the subject patient issue of teenage pregnancy are the result of medical production in patient care, values and representations of medical logic. Were characterized as specific looks of the health professional that the adolescent subject rather invisible in healthcare practice the production of medical science based on the perception of the world for these professionals that conflict with the perceptions of the world of the adolescent experience of pregnancy. The focused on biomedical and medical science organicist model, based on a positivist tradition, makes the medical art a place of reflection and little structural knowledge is privileged at the expense of established new possibilities of medical care, where issues involving human dimensions are difficult insertion. The other axis is based on the perceptions of the social model of traditional family structure and power \"in maintaining order\" that society attaches to the doctor.

Contexte : L'évolution des pratiques en alcoologie, suivant le modèle des soins centrés sur la patient, permet de revisiter le concept de rémission pour une meilleure prise en compte du point de vue du patient, participant de façon prépondérante dans la définition de ses objectifs thérapeutiques et dans leur évaluation. Pourtant, peu de ces critères subjectifs de l’évaluation du devenir des patients ont véritablement inclus le patient dans leur développement. Jusqu'à récemment, les instruments mesurant la qualité de vie les plus utilisés en alcoologie étaient génériques, constitués d'items générés par les experts et s'appuyant sur la littérature existante, mais n'ayant pas impliqué de patient dans leur développement, c’est-à-dire dans la génération des items. Méthodes : nous avons réalisé une revue systématique de la littérature recensant les essais thérapeutiques randomisés testant une intervention chez les patients alcoolodépendants, et mesurant son efficacité sur la qualité de vie. Nous avons répertorié les dimensions explorées dans les instruments existants. Il a été montré que ces instruments n'exploraient pas de façon optimale l’impact de l’alcoolodépendance sur la qualité de vie. Sur ce constat, nous avons développé conformément aux recommandations de la Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sur le développement des « Patients-Reported Outcomes » une échelle spécifique au trouble d'usage d'alcool, à partir du vécu rapporté par les patients. Nous avons utilisé la méthode des groupes focus, réalisés en parallèle en France et en Grande-Bretagne auprès de 38 patients présentant un trouble d’usage d’alcool. Ces groupes ont pu générer un pool d’items, testés secondairement par des entretiens cognitifs individuels auprès de 31 patients, aboutissant à l’échelle finale « Alcohol Quality of life Scale » (AQoLS). Nous avons ensuite validé l’échelle AQoLS sur un échantillon de 285 patients français présentant un trouble d’usage d’alcool, recrutés dans des centres sélectionnés de façon aléatoire en France. Résultats : L’échelle développée comporte 34 items, répartis selon 7 dimensions : les relations sociales, les activités, les conditions de vie, s’occuper de soi, les émotions négatives, le sommeil et la perte de contrôle. L’analyse de l’échelle a pu confirmer 6 de ces sept dimensions, avec une répartition légèrement différente des items. La dimension « s’occuper de soi » a disparu au profit d’une nouvelle dimension, l’estime de soi. Les dimensions de contrôle et d’estime de soi sont novatrices dans un instrument de qualité de vie liée à la santé, chez l’adulte. L’échelle a montré de bonnes propriétés psychométriques, avec une bonne consistance interne (Cronbach = 0.96), et une corrélation modérée mais significative avec certains sous-scores de la SF-36 et l’EQ-5D. Un travail complémentaire qualitatif a pu illustrer les liens entre les différents domaines impactés, et notamment la proximité de perception dans les propos des patients, entre l’estime de soi, la perte de contrôle et les troubles cognitifs. Conclusion : L’évolution vers un modèle des soins centrés sur le patient permet d’envisager une conception différente de la rémission et de construire et valider une mesure de la qualité de vie se rapprochant des préoccupations des patients, l’échelle AQoLS. Deux dimensions novatrices ont été rattachées à ce concept : la perte de contrôle du point de vue du patient, et l’estime de soi. / Context : The evolution of practices in alcohol use disorder field, following the model of patient-centered care, lets revisit the concept of remission for a better consideration of the patient's point of view, participating predominantly in the definition of therapeutic objectives and in their assessment. Yet few of these subjective criteria of the evaluation of patient outcomes have actually included the patient in their development. Until recently, quality of life instruments the most used among patients with alcohol use disorder were generic ones, and their development and particularly generation of items did not involve patients, but rather experts and were based on existing literature. Methods : we conducted a systematic literature review identifying randomized clinical trials testing an intervention in alcohol-dependent patients, and measuring its effectiveness on quality of life. We have listed the dimensions explored in the existing instruments. It has been shown that these instruments did not optimally explore the impact of alcohol dependence on quality of life in this population. On this, we have developed a scale specific for patients with alcohol use disorder, following the recommendations of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the development of "Patient-Reported Outcomes", namely involving patients extensively. We used the method of focus groups conducted in parallel in France and Great Britain with 38 patients with alcohol use disorder. These groups allowed the generation of a pool of items, secondarily tested by individual cognitive interviews with 31 patients, resulting in the final scale "Alcohol Quality of Life Scale" (AQoLS). We then validated the AQoLS scale on a sample of 285 French patients with alcoho use disorder, recruited from randomly selected centers in France. Results: The scale has 34 items developed, distributed in seven dimensions: social relationships, activities, living conditions, looking after self, negative emotions, sleep and loss of control. The validation study confirmed six of the seven dimensions, with a slightly different distribution of the items. The "looking after self" dimension disappeared in favor of a new dimension of self-esteem. Control and self-esteem dimensions are innovative in a health-related quality of life instrument in adults. The scale showed good psychometric properties, with good internal consistency (Cronbach = 0.96), and a moderate correlation with sub-scores of the SF-36 and EQ-5D. A qualitative complementary work could illustrate the links between the different affected areas, including the proximity in patients’ perception between self-esteem, loss of control and cognitive impairment. Conclusion : The move towards a model of patient-centered care allows considering a different approach of remission and to build and validate a measure of health-related quality of life close to the concerns of patients with a alcohol use disorder, AQoLS scale. Two innovative dimensions were attached to this concept: loss of control from the patient's perspective, and self-esteem.

O profissional de saúde ao visualizar a gravidez na adolescência como um problema de saúde a ser corrigido, torna invisível o paciente como sujeito de direitos e necessidades de cuidado. Há percepções de que as práticas no campo da Medicina estão descoladas da realidade e não atendem, ao que parece, às demandas dos usuários como sujeitos de direitos das ações em saúde. Os conhecimentos adquiridos, construídos e compartilhados foram incorporados à realidade da prática médica, porém a grande questão é saber e entender em que medida e de que forma acontece esse processo e como se relaciona com os demais envolvidos, ou seja, qual a percepção e o que prevalece ou torna-se invisível o sujeito paciente na abordagem médica às questões complexas da saúde dos indivíduos. Os objetivos desse trabalho foram desvelar as invisibilidades do sujeito paciente na questão da gravidez na adolescência sob os olhares do profissional da saúde e, consequentemente, caracterizar especificidades dos olhares do profissional da saúde na prática da assistência aos adolescentes com experiência de gravidez que os tornam invisíveis ao profissional. Para esse fim, foi adotado como procedimento metodológico a investigação cientifica da pesquisa descritiva de abordagem qualitativa, por meio da análise de conteúdo des entrevistas semi estruturadas, de aspecto geral sobre assuntos relacionados ao tema central gravidez na adolescência e a assistência médica, com perguntas comuns e consensuais que envolviam significados, ensino, a prática cotidiana e saúde pública com profissionais de saúde médicos, que trabalham com adolescentes grávidas, nos serviços da rede de saúde pública em município da Grande São Paulo, com vinculação acadêmica a Instituição de Ensino Superior. Desvelaram-se que as invisibilidades do sujeito paciente na questão da gravidez na adolescência são resultados da produção médica no cuidado ao paciente, nos valores e representações da lógica médica. Caracterizaram-se como especificidades dos olhares do profissional de saúde que invisibiliza o sujeito adolescente na prática assistencial a produção da ciência médica fundamentada na percepção de mundo para esses profissionais que conflitam com as percepções de mundo do adolescente na experiência da gravidez. A ciência médica voltada ao modelo biomédico e organicista, baseada numa tradição positivista, torna a arte médica um lugar de pouca reflexão estrutural e privilegia-se o saber instituído em detrimento de novas possibilidades do cuidado médico, onde as questões que envolvem dimensões humanas têm difícil inserção. O outro eixo está fundamentado nas percepções de modelo social de estrutura familiar tradicional e no poder em manter a ordem que a sociedade atribui ao médico. / The health professional to show teenage pregnancy as a health problem to be corrected, makes invisible the patient as a subject of rights and care needs. There are perceptions that the practices in the medical field are detached from reality and does not meet, it seems, the demands of the users as subjects of rights of health actions. The knowledge acquired, built and shared were incorporated to the reality of medical practice, but the big question is to know and understand to what extent and in what way does this process and how it relates to others involved, therefore, what the perception and what prevails or becomes invisible subject patient in medical approach to the complex issues of the health of individuals. Among the most common health guidelines, some are eligible to potentially reach a greater degree of complexity to the care and become provocative assistance gaps, which in this study called the invisibility of the subject, and one of the staves, we work with teenage pregnancy, and the invisibility of this teenager in this important moment of your life that need care and support of the health professional. The objectives of this study were to reveal the invisibilities of fellow patient on the issue of teen pregnancy in the looks of the healthcare professional and, consequently, characterize specificities of the looks of the health professionals in the practice of assistance to adolescents with pregnancy experience that makes them invisible to the professional. For this purpose, was adopted as methodological procedure scientific research of qualitative research, through the analysis of semi structured interviews, General aspect on subjects related to the central theme teen pregnancy and medical assistance, with common questions and consensual involving meanings, teaching, daily practice and public health with medical health professionals, who work with pregnant adolescents services public health network in municipality of greater São Paulo, academic affiliation with the Medical Education Institution. Was unveiled that the invisibility of the subject patient issue of teenage pregnancy are the result of medical production in patient care, values and representations of medical logic. Were characterized as specific looks of the health professional that the adolescent subject rather invisible in healthcare practice the production of medical science based on the perception of the world for these professionals that conflict with the perceptions of the world of the adolescent experience of pregnancy. The focused on biomedical and medical science organicist model, based on a positivist tradition, makes the medical art a place of reflection and little structural knowledge is privileged at the expense of established new possibilities of medical care, where issues involving human dimensions are difficult insertion. The other axis is based on the perceptions of the social model of traditional family structure and power \"in maintaining order\" that society attaches to the doctor.

L’exercice des soins de premier recours en maisons et pôles de santé pluriprofessionnels (MSP) connaît depuis quelques années un développement croissant. Ces modalités d’exercice sont présentées comme une solution aux défis que représentent le vieillissement de la population, l’augmentation de la prévalence des maladies chroniques, l’accentuation des inégalités sociales de santé et l’irrésistible croissance des dépenses de santé. Elles s’inscrivent dans une remise en cause du système de santé français, construit historiquement sur un modèle curatif hospitalo-centré et sur une médecine de ville d’exercice libéral et isolé. L’impératif d’un recentrage du système sur les soins de premier recours devient un objectif partagé par l’Etat et certains professionnels libéraux, associé à celui de leur réorganisation pour en accroître la dimension préventive et éducative, dans une approche de santé publique collective, populationnelle et mieux coordonnée au niveau d’un territoire. Comment les soins primaires se transforment-ils dans les MSP ? Dans les dynamiques observées, quels places et rôles jouent les pratiques préventives et éducatives ? Ces questions sont abordées avec une posture de recherche « engagée », inscrite dans une réflexion méthodologique et politique, articulant des approches médicale, de santé publique et sociologique. L’analyse de la littérature permet de resituer les MSP dans un continuum d’innovations organisationnelles, favorisées par la baisse de la démographie médicale, l’inégale répartition des professionnels et la territorialisation de l’offre de soins. Pour saisir de manière simultanée et dynamique les mutations en cours dans ce type de structure, leurs modalités et le sens que leur donnent les acteurs qui s’y engagent, la recherche s’appuie sur la monographie ethnographique d’un projet de MSP suivi dans la longue durée et sur des entretiens menés auprès de professionnels exerçant dans quatre MSP contrastées. La sociologie de l’innovation permet d’éclairer les « manières de faire » et les opérations de traduction qui tissent le développement d’un exercice coordonné en MSP et la mise en œuvre de pratiques préventives et éducatives entre des acteurs travaillant généralement peu ensemble. La sociologie interactionniste permet en outre d’appréhender les difficultés ressenties par les acteurs dans leur pratique, leurs objectifs et arguments en faveur de ce nouveau cadre organisationnel, ainsi que la diversité des formes de leur engagement et des logiques sociales qui les sous-tendent. Les MSP et les démarches de prévention et d’« éducation thérapeutique » qui y sont développées apparaissent comme des instruments politiques efficaces de « mise en mouvement » des professionnels autour d’objectifs et d’organisations à co-construire, pouvant emprunter plusieurs voies. Dans ces dispositifs locaux d’innovation souple, pluriprofessionnalité et pratiques préventives se nourrissent mutuellement, contribuant à une structuration territoriale des soins primaires et à l’émergence d’une définition étendue de la prévention. Cependant, ces transformations rencontrent des freins importants. D’une part, la réinvention d’une médecine collective de ville, contre laquelle s’était construite la médecine libérale, se heurte au poids des logiques professionnelles, questionnant la possibilité d’une diffusion de ces nouvelles organisations. D’autre part, l’ampleur de l’offre préventive et éducative est limitée par les ressources disponibles, par les choix des professionnels et par la faible place donnée aux patients et aux usagers. Ces résultats interrogent la capacité des acteurs à dépasser des logiques professionnelles pour intégrer dorénavant des logiques de santé publique à visée préventive et éducative. Ils questionnent également leur volonté de s’inscrire dans une démarche de promotion de la santé, permettant d’interpeller les politiques sur les actions intersectorielles à mener contre les déterminants des inégalités sociales de santé. / The delivery of primary care in multi-professional health care centres (MSPs) has met with growing interest over the past few years. These types of care organisations have been presented as a solution to the challenges associated with population ageing, the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, the rise of inequalities in healthcare and of healthcare expenditures. MSPs contribute to the questioning of the French health care system, based historically on a curative and hospital-centred model complemented by a self-employed, isolated and city-concentrated system of medical practice. The need to give primary care a central place in the system has become an objective shared by public institutions and by some self-employed healthcare professionals (HCPs). It is associated with the aim of restructuring primary care in order to emphasize a prevention-based approach, in a more collective, coordinated, population-based and territory-based approach of public health. How are primary care practices being transformed within these MSPs? In the dynamics observed, what are the place and role played by preventive and educational practices? These questions are explored with a posture of “committed” research, based on a methodological and political reflection, involving medical, public health and sociological approaches. An analysis of the literature enables this research to place the development of MSPs in a continuum of organisational innovations, favoured by the decreasing number of doctors, the uneven distribution of HCPs and the territorialisation of healthcare provision. In order to seize - in a simultaneous and dynamic way - the current transformations and arrangements observed in MSPs and the meaning they have for the actors involved, the research is based on an ethnographical monograph of a project of MSP followed over a long period, and on interviews held with actors practicing in four different MSPs. The sociology of innovation enables us to highlight the “ways of doing things” and the translation operations that help to weave together the development of coordinated practice in MSPs and the implementation of prevention and educational measures involving actors not accustomed to working together. Moreover, the interactionist perspective in sociology allows us to apprehend the difficulties met by the actors in their daily practice, their aims and their arguments in favour of a new organisational framework, as well as the diversity of the different forms of their engagement and the underlying social dynamics. MSPs and initiatives of prevention and patient education implemented in these institutions appear as effective political instruments to “put professionals in movement” around objectives and organisations that have to be built up together, following several paths. With these flexible innovative devices, multi-professionality and preventive practices feed mutually on each other, contributing to the structuring of a primary care system on a territorial basis, and to the emergence of a wider definition of prevention. However, these transformations meet important constraints. On one hand, the reinvention of a collective medicine, against which the self-employed medicine has been opposed for over a century, collides with the weight of a heavy professional logical system, questioning the possibility of an extension of these new organisations. On the other hand, the scale of the preventive and educational supply of care is limited by the available resources as well as the choices made by the actors- and by the low rank given to patients. These results question the capacity of the actors to overtake the logical professional approach in order that they integrate from now on a public health logical approach with a preventive and educational aim. They also question the will of the actors to integrate a health-promoting approach, than could tackle the politics of intersectoral actions to affront the determinants of health inequalities.

Background: Despite advances in HIV medication, many people living with HIV (PLWH) do not link to care upon diagnosis, do not remain engaged if linked, and do not achieve viral suppression through consistent ART adherence. Not achieving viral suppression is associated with low CD4-cell counts, preventable hospitalizations, frequent emergency room usage, risk of developing a drug resistance, and excess morbidity and mortality. Despite extensive literature that explores barriers to care, these disparities remain, particularly among racial, ethnic and sexual minority groups. Mistrust of health care systems and/or providers is thought to provide a partial explanation for why racial and ethnic minority groups are less likely to access outpatient HIV care. One form of health-related mistrust, referred to as “conspiracy beliefs” in the literature and in popular culture, is particularly associated with racial and ethnic minority people. HIV-related “conspiracy beliefs” can include the ideas that the government created HIV to target specific minority groups, that antiretroviral medication is used to experiment on vulnerable groups, or that a cure is being withheld or delayed by pharmaceutical companies and/or the government. Although many studies have assessed the prevalence of such beliefs, little is known about the possible relationship between endorsing these ideas and engagement from HIV care/ART adherence among PLWH. Moreover, the extant literature has provided equivocal findings that point to the need for further research on the relationship between these beliefs and managing one’s HIV. Methods: Over the course of one year, 27 semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with low income PLWH of color living in the NYC area that are currently, or were recently, disengaged from outpatient HIV medical care. Additionally, a brief questionnaire was administered to obtain demographic and engagement/medication adherence data to describe the sample of participants. Findings: This analysis revealed the variation, texture and diversity related to people’s beliefs about the origin and treatment of HIV. Beliefs about the pharmaceutical industry and the government highlighted both the racism and classism experienced by low income who belong to racial and ethnic minority groups. Notably, HIV care providers did not appear to be perceived as part of the government-pharmaceutical power complex. This suggests that while many people may endorse these types of ideas, endorsement does not necessarily directly impact engagement in care. However, endorsing positive beliefs about the efficacy of ART, and the belief that HIV can be a chronic disease if treated consistently, helped participants remain adherent or desire to re-commit to taking it consistently. Participants also appreciated, and desired, providers that engaged in patient-centered medicine. Recommendations: It may be that public health does not necessarily need to endeavor to dislodge origin or pharmaceutical/cure-related beliefs; rather, interventions can focus on building trust between health care providers and populations that have been experienced both historically and ongoing marginalization. Participants’ emphasis on wanting to manage their ART-related challenges with their providers suggests that HIV providers have an instrumental role in not only lowering viral loads and achieving viral suppression, but also helping their patients feel agentic and able to manage their HIV. Implementing patient-centered medicine will also engender trust, thereby helping patients internalize the belief that consistent engagement and ART adherence makes HIV a chronic, manageable illness.

This research explored health decision-making processes among people recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Our analysis suggested that diagnosis with type 2 was followed by a period of intense emotional and cognitive disequilibrium. Subsequently, the informants were observed to proceed to health decision-making which was affected by three separate and interrelated factors: knowledge, self-efficacy, and purpose. Knowledge included cognitive or factual components and emotional elements. Knowledge influenced the degree of upset or disequilibrium the patient experienced, and affected a second category, agency: the informants’ confidence in their ability to enact lifestyle changes. The third factor, purpose, summarized the personal and deeply held reasons people gave as they made decisions concerning their health, eating and exercising. We propose this model, grounded in informant stories, as a heuristic, to guide further inquiry. From these stories, the patient is seen as more active and the interrelated influences of knowledge, agency, and purpose, synergistically interact to explain changes in health behaviors.

No description available.

Due to the fastest growing senior population, age-related cognitive impairments, including Alzheimer's disease, are becoming among the most common diseases in the United States. Currently, prevention through delay is considered the best way to tackle Alzheimer's disease and related dementia, as there is no known cure for those diseases. Early detection is crucial, in that screening individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment may delay its onset and progression. For my dissertation work, I investigate how computing technologies can help medical practitioners detect and monitor cognitive impairment due to dementia, and I develop a computerized sketch-based screening tool. In this dissertation, I present the design, implementation, and evaluation of the ClockMe System, a computerized Clock Drawing Test. The traditional Clock Drawing Test (CDT) is a rapid and reliable instrument for the early detection of cognitive dysfunction. Neurologists often notice missing or extra numbers in the clock drawings of people with cognitive impairments and use scoring criteria to make a diagnosis and treatment plan. The ClockMe System includes two different applications - (1) the ClockReader for the patients who take the Clock Drawing Test and (2) the ClockAnalyzer for clinicians who use the CDT results to make a diagnosis or to monitor patients. The contributions of this research are (1) the creation of a computerized screening tool to help clinicians identify cognitive impairment through a more accessible and quick-and-easy screening process; (2) the delivery of computer-collected novel behavioral data, which may offer new insights and a new understanding of a patient's cognition; (3) an in-depth understanding of different stakeholders and the identification of their common user needs and desires within a complicated healthcare workflow system; and (4) the triangulation of multiple data collection methods such as ethnographical observations, interviews, focus group meetings, and quantitative data from a user survey in a real-world deployment study.