Project Design >> Designing the key features of your project
a. Defining your patient cohort
The central organising rule of the CSS model is a defined cohort of patients according to a particular clinical condition or diagnosis. This can be done with varying degrees of specificity.
The patient-centred approach assists with collating available evidence to inform clinical practice. However, it may pose practical challenges because it cuts across other ways in which our health system is organised.
For example, patients with a particular condition may not all be cared for within the same ward or unit in a hospital. In this case, your design needs to include strategies for identifying all patients within the defined group, regardless of the ward or unit they are located in.
Example
A project focusing on patients hospitalised with asthma would need strategies to identify patients in intensive care wards, high dependency wards, respiratory wards or general medical wards.
