About Me

I am Dawn Gauthier, web development analyst for the Pursuing Perfection Project here in Whatcom County. I am a recent addition to the Pacific Northwest and I am very pleased to participate in building a new and better system of healthcare in the most beautiful place on Earth.

My background is in usability and user-centered design, the philosophy and practice of putting the people who use technology at the center and designing tools that support their real work instead of creating unnecessary work and frustration (reducing peoples’ desire to hurl their computers out the window).

My main project for the grant has been designing the web-based Shared Care Plan application, a patient-owned tool that lets patients collaborate with their Care Team online to help manage their chronic conditions. I have found working in the context of patient-centeredness delightfully complementary to the ideas of user-centered design and have been able to create the Shared Care Plan web application working directly with patients and healthcare professionals who will use it.

One thing I am finding difficult to design into the Shared Care Plan is sufficiently communicating the paradigm shift to true patient-centeredness. Of course this aspect is implicit throughout the application, but I believe the Shared Care Plan will really achieve what it’s designed to do only when the system it lives in supports and believes in the philosophy behind it. I am confident we are now in the midst of that evolution.

© Copyright 2003 Dawn Gauthier . Last update: 5/14/2003; 3:15:51 PM . This theme was created for WWPP by Jack F. Mancilla