Interactive individualization: patient counselling and drug information supported by knowledge systems.

A model for computer-supported patient counselling and drug information in community pharmacies is described. Two types of informational need are distinguished: the subjective informational need, i.e. the informational need perceived by the patient himself, and the normative informational need, i.e. the patient's informational need according to the professional. Accordingly, individualization is defined as the fine-tuning of information to the informational needs of the participants in the process of communication. A computer-supported process of communication based on this model is defined as 'interactive individualization'. The task of this knowledge system is to support the interactive encounter of the professional and the patient. The process of providing information consists of two subtasks: determining the items of information, e.g. pregnancy, dosage, etc., and subsequently determining the content of information or the advice itself. Based on these subtasks several functionalities of the proposed knowledge system can be derived.