1.0 Overview
The Sirona Unified Collaboration Portal framework (UCP) is a modular platform that helps health care providers communicate and collaborate with their patients on health care matters. It provides access to clinical data, documents, diagnostic guidance, risk analysis, decision support, and planning tools that help providers assess their patients' medical data, their relative risk for specific diseases and to leverage rules and workflows during their diagnostic workups. Medical facility administrators can use a resource-capacity simulator to optimize resources (staff, rooms, equipment, and so on) needed to care for their patients. Such optimization increases capacity and improves access to care.
Sirona allows patients to access many of the same tools and clinical resources used by providers. Sirona also provides a range of opportunities to educate patients on a broad spectrum of health care topics, and through its collaboration services, facilitates active participation in their treatment and recovery. Through use of the Sirona patient tools, patients can better understand their conditions, their treatment plans, and can collaborate with their health care providers to fashion and implement a coordinated plan for achieving and sustaining health.
1.1 System Description
Sirona is a web-based application divided into three groups of general functionality, accessible to both providers and patients according to their status and role.
• General Education: Both unauthenticated and authenticated users can access certain portal resources without logging in. Users can browse general help topics and news, request an account, take a feature tour, and other tasks appropriate to site navigation.
• Patient Functionality: Only authenticated patients can access this layer of Sirona, which provides access to their medical record (PMR), a Patient Inbox for receiving and sending messages related to their health care, and management tools, such as a unified calendar and health care address book.
• Provider Functionality: Only authenticated health care providers can access this layer. It contains tools to review patient medical records through the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) application, send emails/alerts/documents to patients and colleagues, and receive Clinical Decision Support alerts. Additional clinical tools include capabilities to assess a patient risk for disease and determine a diagnosis. The portal allows authorized providers to access a CDS workbench to author rules that support clinical decision-making, and a simulator to optimize resources at their medical facilities.
Both providers and patients log in on the same page. Sirona, based on user type, directs the user to the appropriate portal application, Patient Portal (PMR) or Provider Portal (EMR). While each application has its own theme colors, layout, and functionality, the intent behind the common login is to re-enforce that patient and providers are a team collaborating on a common goal.
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