• Can J Anaesth · May 2021

    The state of adoption of anesthesia information management systems in Canadian academic anesthesia departments: a survey.

    • Pooya Kazemi, Francis Lau, Allan F Simpao, R J Williams, and Clyde Matava.
    • South Island Department of Anesthesia, Victoria, BC, Canada.
    • Can J Anaesth. 2021 May 1; 68 (5): 693-705.

    PurposeAnesthesia information management systems (AIMS) are gradually replacing paper documentation of anesthesia care. This study sought to determine the current status of AIMS adoption and the level of health informatics expertise in Canadian academic anesthesia departments.MethodsDepartment heads or their designates of Canadian academic anesthesia departments were invited by e-mail to complete an online survey between September 2019 and February 2020. The survey elicited information on current AIMS or future plans for an AIMS installation, the number of department members dedicated to clinical informatics issues, the gross level of health informatics expertise at each department, perceived advantages of AIMS, and perceived disadvantages of and barriers to implementation of AIMS.ResultsOf the 64 departments invited to participate, 63 (98.4%) completed the survey. Only 21 (33.3%) of the departments had AIMS. Of the 42 departments still charting on paper, 23 (54.8%) reported planning to install an AIMS within the next five years. Forty-six departments (73%) had at least one anesthesiologist tasked with dealing with AIMS or electronic health record issues. Most reported having no department members with extensive knowledge or formal training in health informatics. The top three perceived barriers and disadvantages to an AIMS installation were its initial cost, lack of funding, and a lack of technical support dedicated specifically to AIMS. The top three advantages departments wished to prioritize with AIMS were accurate clinical documentation, better data for quality improvement initiatives, and better data for research.ConclusionsA majority of Canadian academic anesthesia departments are still using paper records, but this trend is expected to reverse in the next five years as more departments install an AIMS. Health informatics expertise is lacking in most of the departments, with a minority planning to support the training of future anesthesia informaticians.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…