Aspects of Designing a Patient Profile in Computer-based Health Information Tailoring systems: A systematic Scoping Review

Tailoring the content of health information to the needs, preferences and abilities of individuals, leads to more informed and empowered health consumers. Computerized tailoring of Health Information requires patient’s characteristics. A user profile consists of personal data which are basic components in designing computer-tailoring systems. The present study aimed to identify and categorize aspects related to designing, implementing, and interpreting user profile in health computer-tailoring.
In this scoping review, leading databases such as PubMed and Scopus were reviewed using Arksey and O’Malley’s scoping review methodology as a guide. Furthermore, reference lists of relevant literature and key journals were searched. The search was limited to English language articles published from 1990 onwards. Search strings consisted of several keywords related to four main concepts: Individualization, Information, ICT platform, and Health Domain.
The analysis of data, collected from a total of 32 eligible studies, highlighted three aspects in designing a user profile. 1-Identifying common factors used in profiles and classifying them thematically, 2-Data collection tools and methods, and 3-Data interpretation.
Different aspects of designing a user profile in health information tailoring systems were investigated. The proposed model could be considered as a valuable guide for new researchers in the field.