Standardized assessment, information, and networking technologies (SAINTs): lessons from three decades of development and testing

PURPOSE: To rectify the significant mismatch observed between what matters to patients and what clinicians know, our research group developed a standardized assessment, information, and networking technology (SAINT). METHODS: Controlled trials and field tests involving more than 230,000 adults identified characteristics of a successful SAINT—www.HowsYourHealth.org—for primary care and community settings. RESULTS: Evidence supports SAINT effectiveness when the SAINT has a simple design that provides a service to patients and explicitly engages them in an information and communication network with their clinicians. This service orientation requires that an effective SAINT deliver easily interpretable patient reports that immediately guide provider actions. For example, our SAINT tracks patient-reported confidence that they can self-manage health problems, and providers can immediately act on patients’ verbatim descriptions of what they want or need to become more health confident. This information also supports current and future resource planning, and thereby fulfills another characteristic of a successful SAINT: contributing to health care reliability. Lastly, SAINTs must manage or evade the “C-monsters,” powerful obstacles to implementation that largely revolve around control and commercialism. Responses from more than 10,000 adult patients with diabetes illustrate how a successful SAINT offers a standard and expedient guide to managing each patient’s concerns and adjusting health services to better meet the needs of any large patient population. CONCLUSION: Technologies that evolve to include the characteristics described here will deliver more effective tools for patients, providers, payers, and policymakers and give patients control over sharing their data with those who need it in real time.