Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA
-
J Am Med Inform Assoc · Jan 2016
Identifying unmet informational needs in the inpatient setting to increase patient and caregiver engagement in the context of pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
Patient-centered care has been shown to improve patient outcomes, satisfaction, and engagement. However, there is a paucity of research on patient-centered care in the inpatient setting, including an understanding of unmet informational needs that may be limiting patient engagement. Pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) represents an ideal patient population for elucidating unmet informational needs, due to the procedure's complexity and its requirement for caregiver involvement. ⋯ Pediatric HSCT caregivers and patients have multiple informational needs that could be met with a health information technology system that integrates data from several sources, including electronic health records. Meeting these needs could reduce patients' and caregivers' anxiety surrounding the care process; reduce information asymmetry between caregivers/patients and providers; empower patients/caregivers to participate in the care process; and, ultimately, increase patient/caregiver engagement in the care process.
-
J Am Med Inform Assoc · Jan 2016
Comparative StudyIntegrating community-based participatory research and informatics approaches to improve the engagement and health of underserved populations.
We compare 5 health informatics research projects that applied community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches with the goal of extending existing CBPR principles to address issues specific to health informatics research. ⋯ Our cross-case analysis yielded valuable insights regarding CBPR implementation in health informatics research and identified valuable lessons useful for future CBPR-based research. The benefits of applying CBPR approaches can be significant, particularly in engaging populations that are typically underserved by health care and in designing patient-facing technology.
-
J Am Med Inform Assoc · Jan 2016
Strategizing EHR use to achieve patient-centered care in exam rooms: a qualitative study on primary care providers.
Electronic health records (EHRs) have great potential to improve quality of care. However, their use may diminish "patient-centeredness" in exam rooms by distracting the healthcare provider from focusing on direct patient interaction. The authors conducted a qualitative interview study to understand the magnitude of this issue, and the strategies that primary care providers devised to mitigate the unintended adverse effect associated with EHR use. ⋯ This study has uncovered the challenges that primary care providers face in integrating the EHR into their work practice, and the strategies they use to overcome these challenges in order to maintain patient-centered care. These findings illuminate the importance of developing "best" practices to improve patient-centered care in today's highly "wired" health environment. These findings also show that more user-centered EHR design is needed to improve system usability.