1,721,075 research outputs found
Informed use of patients' records on trusted health care services
No full textHealth care is an information-intensive business. Sharing information in health care processes is a smart use of data enabling informed decision-making whilst ensuring. the privacy and security of patient information. To achieve this, we propose data encryption techniques embedded Information Accountability Framework (IAF) that establishes transitions of the technological concept, thus enabling understanding of shared responsibility, accessibility, and efficient cost effective informed decisions between health care professionals and patients. The IAF results reveal possibilities of efficient informed medical decision making and minimisation of medical errors. Of achieving this will require significant cultural changes and research synergies to ensure the sustainability, acceptability and durability of the IA
Information accountability and usability : are there any connections?
No full textAvailability of health information is rapidly increasing and the expansion and proliferation of health information is inevitable. The Electronic Healthcare Record, Electronic Medical Record and Personal Health Record are at the core of this trend and are required for appropriate and practicable exchange and sharing of health information. However, it is becoming increasingly recognized that it is essential to preserve patient privacy and information security when utilising sensitive information for clinical, management and administrative processes. Furthermore, the usability of emerging healthcare applications is also becoming a growing concern. This paper proposes a novel approach for integrating consideration of information accountability with a perspective from usability engineering that can be applied when developing healthcare information technology applications. A social networking user case in the healthcare information exchange will be presented in the context of our approach
A comparison of Australian and Canadian informatics competencies for undergraduate nurses
No full textHealth information technologies (HIT) have changed healthcare delivery. Yet, there are few opportunities for student nurses in their undergraduate studies to develop nursing informatics competencies. More importantly, many countries around the world have not fully specified nursing informatics competencies that will be expected of student nurses prior to their graduation from undergraduate nursing programs. In this paper the authors compare and contrast the undergraduate nursing informatics competencies that were developed by two countries: Australia and Canada. They also identify some of the challenges and future research directions in the area
Understanding Perspectives of Risk Awareness
No full textResearch in risk awareness has been relatively neglected in the health informatics literature, which tends largely to examine project managers’ perspectives of risk awareness; very few studies explicitly address the perspectives held by senior executives such as directors. Another limitation evident in the current risk literature is that studies are often based on American data and/or they are restricted to American culture. Both factors highlight the need to examine how senior executives (i.e., directors) who oversee or direct eHealth projects in Canada perceive risk awareness. This research explores and discusses the perspectives of risk awareness (i.e., identification, analysis, and prioritization) held by directors and project managers who implement Canadian eHealth projects. Semi-structured interviews with nine directors and project managers uncovered six key distinctions in these two groups’ awareness of risk. First, all project managers valued transparency over anonymity, whereas directors believed that an anonymous reporting system for communicating risks had merit. Secondly, most directors emphasized the importance of evidence-based planning and decision making when balancing risks and opportunities, an aspect none of the project managers voiced. Thirdly, while project managers noted that the level of risk tolerance may evolve from being risk-averse to risk-neutral, directors believed that risk tolerance evolved toward risk-seeking. Directors also noted the importance of employing risk officers, a view that was not shared by project managers. Directors also believed the risk of too little end-user engagement and change management was the most important risk, whereas project managers ranked it as the least important. Finally, when directors and project managers were asked to identify and define the root cause(s) of eHealth risks, directors identified the complexity of health care industry, while project managers attributed it to political pressure and a lack of resources where eHealth projects are concerned. This research proposes that the varied perspectives of risk awareness held by directors and project managers must be considered and integrated to properly align expectations and build partnerships for successful eHealth project outcomes. Understanding risk awareness offers a means to systematically identify and analyze the complex nature of eHealth projects by embracing uncertainties, thereby enabling forward thinking (i.e., staying one step ahead of risks) and the ability to prevent avoidable risks and seize [email protected]
Does usability engineering matters for STEM education?
No full textTechnological maturity and the exponential growth of digital applications are contributing to lifestyle changes worldwide. Consequently, learning and teaching is demanding more effective sociotechnical interactions involving emerging technologies, as opposed to traditional, conventional face-to-face learning and teaching approaches. In this context, usability engineering is making significant contributions for improving computer and distance-based learning, both for learners and instructors, which have often been ignored when designing online learning and teaching applications. Usability testing is a central part of the human centered learning approach for developing sustainable STEM education from the socio-technological perspective.\ud
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Our experiences with usability engineering and the impact of teaching low-cost rapid usability testing methods on knowledge translation from undergraduate to graduate courses to real-world practice (i.e. getting the methods out there in real use) are diverse and multi-modal. Our sample space has been hundreds of trained students who have learned how to do effective usability engineering in real-world situations at higher levels of realism (i.e. fidelity) and at a much lower cost than using traditional fixed usability labs. Furthermore, this low-cost rapid approach to usability engineering has been adopted by many of our graduates who are now managers, CIOs etc and who are using the methods routinely in their organizations in real world applications and scenarios. This knowledge has been used to improve design and implementation of a wide range of applications, including applications designed for teaching and learning
Qualitative Study of Technology-Induced Errors in Healthcare Organizations
Full text linkHealth information technology is continuously changing and becoming more complex and susceptible to errors. It is both an essential and disruptive innovation that requires proper management of risks arising from its use. To properly manage these risks, there is a need to, first, determine how healthcare organizations in Canada are addressing the issue of errors arising from the use of health information technology (i.e., technology-induced errors). The purpose of this thesis is to determine the level of technology-induced error awareness in Canadian healthcare organizations, to identify processes and procedures at these organizations aimed at addressing, managing, and preventing technology-induced errors, as well as to identify factors that contribute to technology-induced errors. The study finds that, based on the currently available literature, information about these errors in healthcare is not complete. This prevents the development and application of effective health information technology risk management solutions. The research from the semi-structured interviews finds that the definition of technology-induced errors is not consistent among the study participants. The research from the semi-structured interviews also finds a lack of consensus on factors that cause technology-induced errors as well as a lack of reporting mechanisms available that are specifically aimed at reporting technology-induced errors in healthcare. This confirms that there is a lack of technology-induced error awareness among Canadian healthcare organizations, which prevents the ability to properly address, manage, and prevent these [email protected]
An analysis of health information technology-related adverse events: technology-induced errors and vendor reported solutions
No full textHealth information technology has been widely accepted as having the potential to decrease the prevalence of adverse events and improve workflows and communication between healthcare workers. However, the emergence of health technologies has introduced a new type of medical error. Technology-induced errors are a type of medical error that can result from the use of health information technology in all stages of the health information systems life cycle. The purpose of this study is to identify what types of technology-induced errors are present in the key health information technology vendors in the United States, determine if there are any similarities and differences in technology-induced errors present among the key health information technology vendors in the United States, and determine what methods are utilized, if any, by the key vendors of health information technologies to address and/or resolve reported technology-induced errors. This study found that the most commonly reported technology-induced errors are those related to unexpected system behaviours, either through their direct use or through the communication between systems. It was also found that there is a large difference in the number of adverse events being reported by the key health information technology vendors. Just three vendors represent 85% of the adverse events included in this study. Finally, this study found that there are vendors who are posting responses to reported technology-induced errors and these vendors are most commonly following up with software updates and notifications of safety incidents. This study highlights the importance of analyzing adverse event reports in order to understand the types of technology-induced errors that are present in health information technology.Graduat
The impact of computerized provider order entry on nursing practice
Full text linkThe Institute of Medicine reported seven thousand deaths annually due to medication errors. It is estimated that two out of one hundred admissions experience a preventable adverse medication event resulting in an average cost of 2.8 million dollars annually for a 700 bed hospital (Institute of Medicine, 1999). In Canada, medication related errors were identified as the most common adverse event (Canadian Institute for Health Information, 2007). A medication error is “any error that occurs during the process of history taking, ordering, dispensing, administering and surveillance of a medication regardless of whether harm occurred to the patient or if there was potential harm (Eslami, Abu Hanna, & de Keizer, 2007; Ong, 2007). Computerized provider order entry (CPOE) can play a vital role in the prevention of medication errors in the drug ordering stage. It was reported that the occurrence of Adverse Drug Events (ADE) was decreased by fifty-five percent with the addition of CPOE system (Berger & Kichak, 2004). However, the literature review on CPOE impact is heavily focused on the physicians’ perspective (Eslami et al., 2007; Reckmann, Westbrook, Koh, Lo, & Day, 2009; ). Nurses play a significant role in the medication process, as traditionally, nurses are involved in all the medication process stages. Research on the impact of CPOE in the entire medication process is still lacking (Househ, Ahmad, Alshaikh, & Alsuweed, 2013). Understanding the perspective of nurses on the impact of CPOE in their work will increase awareness and understanding of CPOE use among health care professionals and health informaticians. This research adopts a grounded theory approach to explore the question of “how do nurses perceive the impact of CPOE on the medication process and on collaborative practice?” Ten participants were interviewed and out of the ten, eight participants were observed during a portion of their work. The information collected was analyzed using a constant comparative method. Participants described that the CPOE supported legible order communication between care providers and departments. CPOE use removed the requirement to transcribe orders to the medication administration record, as well as, the necessity to fax the order sheet to the pharmacy. However, in the ordering stage the nurse is also involved in providing information for order decision-making. Nurses discuss probable medication orders in cases of urgent situations, or nursing assessments of the patient. In this decision-making, the information requirements of nurses involve not only the medication information, but also information about other orders such as diagnostics, laboratory, and patient care orders. Future CPOE design and CPOE implementations should consider including mobile devices, alerts, and workflow modeling with the nursing information [email protected]
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