A toolbox for patient pathways
The content is under development. Last updated Oct 22, 2025.
This toolbox It is designed to support researchers, healthcare professionals, and service designers working to make patient pathways and patient journeys more patient-cenered and better coordinated. The toolbox provides structured methods, templates, guidance and example cases. We recommend reading the handbook (to be provided soon) to get an overview of the content.
Formalism and templates
The Pathway formalism builds on the foundations of CJML and extends it with a healthcare-specific module. This extension supports the modeling of patient pathways by adding a wider set of actor types, levels, and roles relevant to the healthcare domain.
Case studies
Real-world cases from hospitals and other healthcare settings, developed for various purposes.
- Case 1: Patient journey of a man whose kidney cancer was discovered incidentally
- Case 2: Patient pathway for kidney cancer investigated with hospital staff
- Case 3: Patient pathway for kidney cancer in Finland, including an expert evaluation
- Case 4: Patient pathway for MS in Finland including statistical analysis of a digital care pathway
- Case 5: Survey about patient pathways in public healthcare, Finland
- Case 6: A study of critical incidents among cancer patients
- Case 7: Patient journey of a man whose kidney tumour was discovered incidentally after a CT for cough
- Case 8: Patient journey of a woman with MS, covering new symptom treatment and hospital follow-up
Methods
Methods for investigating pathways, journeys, patient experiences, and healthcare professionals’ perspectives — covering both data collection and analysis.
- Method 1: Critical Incident Technique, a method to investigate positive and negative patient episodes
- Method 2: Mapping of patient pathways, an investigation involving healthcare professionals
- Method 3. Mapping of patient journeys, a longitudinal study with patients
- Method 4: Patient Journey Disruptions: A method for identifying and analyzing harmful events in care processes
- Method 5: National MS Survey: A method for capturing how people with multiple sclerosis perceive the integration of their care pathways
- Method 6: Expert evaluation method for adapting CJML
Latest publications
Survey on patients’ perceptions on care integration: Patients’ Perceptions of Care Integration in Multiple Sclerosis Care in Finland: A Cross-Sectional National Survey by Vesinurm, M., Sylgren, I., Vehkamäki, A., Laakso, S. M., Mäkitie, L., & Torkki, P. (Preprint, 2025)
Exploration of process modelling approaches for complex patient processes: Modelling Complex Patient Proceses in a Multi-Producer Environment. A Design Science Approach Using Patient-Centered Modelling for Kidney Cancer Care Process by Miettinen, E. (Master’s Thesis, Aalto University, 2025)
Cancer patients’ experiences with their patient journeys: “I Became the Messenger Between the Hospitals”: A Study on the Journeys of People With Cancer Using the Critical Incident Technique by Halvorsrud, R., Melby, L., Gjermestad, K., Bogale, B., & Solem, I. K. L. (Health Expectations, 28(2), e70211, 2025)
Doctoral thesis: Managing Complex Patient Journeys: A Healthcare Operations Management Perspective by Vesinurm, M. (Doctoral Thesis, 2025)
Conceptual paper: Concept Analysis of Patient Journey Disruptions: The Obstacle of Integrated Care by Vesinurm, M., Sylgren, I., Bengts, A., Torkki, P., & Lillrank, P. (Journal of Integrated Care, 32(5), 37–58, 2024)
Multiple sclerosis patients’ use of a digital care pathway: Effects of a Digital Care Pathway for Multiple Sclerosis: Observational Study by Vesinurm, M., Maunula, A., Olli, P., Lillrank, P., Ijäs, P., Torkki, P., Mäkitie, L., & Laakso, S. (JMIR Human Factors, 11(1), e51872, 2024)
Cancer patients’ ways of keeping overview of their patient journeys: How Do Cancer Patients Keep Track of Their Patient Journeys? by Larsen, A. G., Halvorsrud, R., Solem, I. K. L., & Melby, L. K. (Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 316, 325–326, 2024)
Healthcare workers’ perspectives on visual modeling: Visual Modeling of Multiple Sclerosis Patient Pathways: The Healthcare Workers’ Perspectives by Bogale, B., Solem, I. K. L., Celius, E. G., & Halvorsrud, R. In Särestöniemi, M., Keikhosrokiani, P., Singh, D., Harjula, E., Tiulpin, A., & Jansson, M. (eds) (Digital Health and Wireless Solutions). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2024, pp. 303–317.
Modeling kidney cancer pathways: Dual-Perspective Modeling of Patient Pathways: A Case Study on Kidney Cancer by Larsen, A. M. G., Halvorsrud, R., Berg, R. E., & Vesinurm, M. In Särestöniemi, M. et al. (eds) (Digital Health and Wireless Solutions). Communications in Computer and Information Science, Vol. 2084. Springer, Cham, 2024.
Utilisation of patient pathways in Finland: Explorative Study on the Utilization of Patient Pathways in Finnish Public Healthcare by Eklund, A., Vesinurm, M., & Torkki, P. In Proceedings of the 57th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2024, pp. 3317–3325.
MedInfo 2025 short-paper: Towards a Formal Framework for Modeling Patient Journeys by Ragnhild Halvorsrud, Anna Grøndahl Larsen, Brian Elvesæter, Line Melby
MedInfo 2025 short-paper: Patient Pathways Inefficiencies in Neurology Care: Providers’ Perspectives by Binyam Bogale, Ingrid Konstanse Ledel Solem, Anna Grøndahl Larsen, Elisabeth G. Celius, and Ragnhild Halvorsrud.
Journal paper: Cancer patients’ experiences with their patient journeys. “I Became the Messenger Between the Hospitals”: A Study on the Journeys of People With Cancer Using the Critical Incident Technique” by Halvorsrud, Ragnhild, Melby, Line, Gjermestad, Kristine, Bogale, Binyam, Solem, Ingrid Konstanse Ledel (2025)
Journal paper: Introducing patient disruptions. “Concept analysis of patient journey disruptions: the obstacle of integrated care” by Vesinurm, Märt; Inka Sylgren; Bengts, Annika; Torkki, Paulus; Lillrank , Paul (2024)