This project involved collaboration between the BETTER Program and the TAPESTRY (Teams Advancing Patient Experience: Strengthening Quality) Project. The goal of TAPESTRY is to promote optimal aging. Optimal aging within the TAPESTRY program means supporting people to move through life with good health in the best possible way: Being Alive Well.

The aim of this collaboration was to refine and integrate electronic versions of the BETTER Program tools (i.e. the BETTER App) into the TAPESTRY Application (or TAP-App) platform developed for use in the McMaster personal health record. Three primary care clinics, one in Alberta and two in Newfoundland & Labrador, will be asked pilot the e-tool enhanced BETTER approach and designate one or more personnel to undertake the role of Prevention Practitioner.

The Prevention Practitioner is a member of the team who receives training on the BETTER approach to chronic disease prevention and screening (CDPS), including shared decision-making and motivational interviewing. Using the BETTER App, and existing TAP-App tools as appropriate, the Prevention Practitioner worked directly with patients by inviting them to a special prevention visit at which an individualized “prevention prescription” was developed and patients were able to set their own CDPS goals. The Prevention Practitioner followed patients over time to assess their progress on their goals and their achievement/completion of the CDPS manoeuvers they were eligible to receive.

This project provided an opportunity to:

1. Determine how CDPS information should be best collected from patients through the BETTER App, and TAP-App tools as appropriate,
2. Understand the feasibility and usability of the BETTER App and TAP App tools from the perspectives of patients and primary care providers, and
3. Explore how the BETTER and TAP Apps and processes can help inform the care delivered to patients.

The desired long-term goals of the TAPESTRY-BETTER collaboration are to enhance patients’ care by:

1. Informing patients about their CDPS status through the use of the BETTER App and TAP App tools,
2. Enhancing primary care providers/teams’ processes of care through the personalization of the CDPS care delivered to patients, and
3. Increasing and streamlining the collaboration between patients and primary care.

For more information about the TAPESTRY project, please visit their website.