Bmc Med Inform Decis
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Bmc Med Inform Decis · Feb 2009
How to successfully select and implement electronic health records (EHR) in small ambulatory practice settings.
Adoption of EHRs by U.S. ambulatory practices has been slow despite the perceived benefits of their use. Most evaluations of EHR implementations in the literature apply to large practice settings. While there are similarities relating to EHR implementation in large and small practice settings, the authors argue that scale is an important differentiator. Focusing on small ambulatory practices, this paper outlines the benefits and barriers to EHR use in this setting, and provides a "field guide" for these practices to facilitate successful EHR implementation. ⋯ The EHR implementation experience depends on a variety of factors including the technology, training, leadership, the change management process, and the individual character of each ambulatory practice environment. Sound processes must support both technical and personnel-related organizational components. Additional research is needed to further refine recommendations for the small physician practice and the nuances of specific medical specialties.
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Bmc Med Inform Decis · Jan 2009
ReviewApplication of biomedical informatics to chronic pediatric diseases: a systematic review.
Chronic diseases affect millions of children worldwide leading to substantial disease burden to the children and their families as well as escalating health care costs. The increasing trend in the prevalence of complex pediatric chronic diseases requires innovative and optimal delivery of care. Biomedical informatics applications play an important role in improving health outcomes while being cost-effective. However, their utility in pediatric chronic diseases has not been studied in a comprehensive and systematic way. The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review of the effects of biomedical informatics applications in pediatric chronic diseases. ⋯ Published studies suggested positive impacts of informatics predominantly in pediatric asthma. As electronic tools become more widely adopted, there will be opportunities to improve patient care in a wide range of chronic illnesses through informatics solutions.
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Bmc Med Inform Decis · Jan 2009
Different patient case mix by applying the 2003 SCCM/ESICM/ACCP/ATS/SIS sepsis definitions instead of the 1992 ACCP/SCCM sepsis definitions in surgical patients: a retrospective observational study.
Revised consensus sepsis definitions have been published in 2003. The present study was performed to compare the prevalence of different stages of sepsis and ICU mortality rates and find out the case mix within the same collective of postoperative/posttraumatic patients applying either the original 1992 ACCP/SCCM or the revised 2003 SCCM/ESICM/ACCP/ATS/SIS sepsis definitions. ⋯ The prevalence and mortality rates of various sepsis severity stages differ if defined by the 1992 or the 2003 definitions. Thus, transferring conclusions drawn from data sets regarding severity of sepsis generated with the 1992 definitions to the same population applying the 2003 definitions may be misleading. The 1992 definitions may under-classify patients with severe sepsis.
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Bmc Med Inform Decis · Jan 2009
An interdisciplinary team communication framework and its application to healthcare 'e-teams' systems design.
There are few studies that examine the processes that interdisciplinary teams engage in and how we can design health information systems (HIS) to support those team processes. This was an exploratory study with two purposes: (1) To develop a framework for interdisciplinary team communication based on structures, processes and outcomes that were identified as having occurred during weekly team meetings. (2) To use the framework to guide 'e-teams' HIS design to support interdisciplinary team meeting communication. ⋯ The structures, processes and outcomes that describe interdisciplinary teams are complex and often occur in a non-linear fashion. Electronic data support, process facilitation and team video conferencing are three HIS tools that can enhance team function.
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Bmc Med Inform Decis · Jan 2009
Information management to enable personalized medicine: stakeholder roles in building clinical decision support.
Advances in technology and the scientific understanding of disease processes are presenting new opportunities to improve health through individualized approaches to patient management referred to as personalized medicine. Future health care strategies that deploy genomic technologies and molecular therapies will bring opportunities to prevent, predict, and pre-empt disease processes but will be dependent on knowledge management capabilities for health care providers that are not currently available. A key cornerstone to the potential application of this knowledge will be effective use of electronic health records. In particular, appropriate clinical use of genomic test results and molecularly-targeted therapies present important challenges in patient management that can be effectively addressed using electronic clinical decision support technologies. ⋯ This perspective addresses conceptual approaches that can be undertaken to develop and apply clinical decision support in electronic health record systems to achieve personalized medical care. In addition, to represent meaningful benefits to personalized decision-making, a comparison of current and future applications of clinical decision support to enable individualized medical treatment plans is presented. If clinical decision support tools are to impact outcomes in a clear and positive manner, their development and deployment must therefore consider the needs of the providers, including specific practice needs, information workflow, and practice environment.