1,721,007 research outputs found
Consumer medication information: memory, perceptions, preferences, and information needs
Full text linkINTRODUCTION: Electronic health resources are becoming prevalent. However, consumer health information is still predominantly text based. Relying on text alone to deliver health information may not be the most effective way to promote learning or sufficient to meet consumer needs.
OBJECTIVES: This study assessed a) whether adding images to text and/or replacing text with narration influenced memory for Consumer Medication Information (CMI), b) if participants perceived CMI formats differently in terms of comprehensibility, utility, or design quality, and if they preferred one format overall c) what participants’ information needs were with respect to CMI.
METHODS: Participants’ (N = 36) remembered CMI presented in three formats: 1) Text, 2) Text + Images, and 3) Narration + Images. Additionally, participants rated the three CMI formats in terms of comprehensibility, utility, design quality and overall preference. Semi-structured interviews were used to investigate participants’ opinions and preferences regarding the CMI formats, as well as their experiences with CMI and information needs.
RESULTS: No significant differences in memory were observed, F(2, 70) = 0.1, p = 0.901. Thus, this study did not find evidence that Mayer’s (2001) multimedia or modality principles apply to CMI. Despite the absence of effects on memory, CMI format impacted perceptions of the material. Participants rated the Text + Images format highest in terms of comprehensibility, X2(2) = 26.5, p < .001 and design quality, X2(2) = 35.69, p < .001. However, after correcting for multiple comparisons, no significant differences in utility ratings between the three formats were observed, X2(2) = 8.21, p < .016. Further, overall preferences revealed that the most participants’ chose the Text + Images format as their favourite (n = 27, 75%) and Text as their least favourite (n = 23, 63.8%). Directed and conventional content analysis were used to explore participants’ CMI preferences and information needs. Various aspects related to provision, comprehensibility, utility, and design quality all appeared to affect perceptions of CMI and whether or not participants used or would use it. Results of this analysis, paired with evidence from other studies, were used to develop a model proposing factors that influence CMI use.
CONCLUSION: This study investigated the potential impact of design and distribution changes on perceptions of CMI. Despite the lack of differences in memory, participants’ perceptions of the formats differed. Findings from this study could be used to inform future research on how CMI could be designed to better suit the needs of consumers and potentially increase the likelihood it is used.Graduat
Low-Cost Rapid Usability Testing for health information systems: is it worth the effort?
No full textUsability testing is a branch of usability engineering that focuses on analyzing and improving user interactions with computer systems. This testing technique has been used in different industries for years and has proven to be very useful in determining major issues with applications before they are released, however the use of this technique has been slow to gain widespread acceptance in testing health information systems. This study was designed to determine if a specific form of usability testing, Low-Cost Rapid Usability Testing, can be introduced as a standard part of the system development lifecycle (SDLC) for health information systems in a cost effective manner. To determine if this was possible a full cost-benefit analysis of Low-Cost Rapid Usability Testing was performed on a health information system, the BC Chronic Disease Management (CDM) Toolkit, tracking all of the costs involved in the testing process and comparing them against the possible costs that may have been incurred if this testing was not performed. It was found that by introducing this technique into the system development lifecycle to allow for earlier detection of errors in a health information system it is possible to achieve an estimated 36.5% to 78.5% cost saving compared to the impact of errors going undetected and causing a technology-induced error. Overall it was found that Low-Cost Rapid Usability Testing can be implemented in conjunction with other testing techniques in a cost effective manner to develop health information systems, and computer systems in general, which will have a lower incidence of technology-induced errors.Graduat
Challenges of Implementing an Electronic Document Management System in a Large Health Care Facility in Southern California
Full text linkThe implementation of Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMSs) is a complex process. Scripps Health started a project to implement the web based McKesson Horizon Patient Folder (HPF) software system in early 2011 in order to digitally capture all the information in patient charts. This research used semi-structured interviews to assess the perceived benefits of using an EDMS and its effect on work-flow from the perspective of physicians and health information management (HIM) staff at two hospitals in San Diego, California. The study was designed to assess the new work-flow processes, work-flow challenges associated with EDMS implementation, and other key factors associated with successful implementation of such systems. The research found the opinion of physicians and HIM staff about the effect of an EDMS on their work-flow to be mostly positive. The data analysis further showed that perceived benefits of an EDMS included improved patient care quality and patient care efficiency due to capabilities such as immediate access to patient information by multiple users, reduced patient data error and improved communication between HIM staff and physicians. The analysis of study data also highlighted some shortcomings of EDMSs; these included the system not being user friendly, not having full EMR capabilities and benefits and the inability of EDMSs to interface with other existing systems. The study proposes that despite some challenges post implementation, overall, an EDMS is favoured over paper based chart [email protected]
Applications of telehealth in the practice, upgrading of knowledge, and communication of physicians with their colleagues and patients in Canada
Full text linkApplications of Telehealth in the practice, upgrading of knowledge, and communication of physicians with their colleagues and patients in Canada was explored in this study. The research used exploratory-grounded theory to investigate the opinions of practicing clinicians regarding the use of Telehealth. The study involved conducting semi-structured interviews with physicians who were using or might in the future use Telehealth in their practice. This study was designed to assess the major advantages and shortcomings that Telehealth has to offer in the field of medicine. The research found that clinicians predominantly had a very positive view of Telehealth, although some minor concerns were expressed with respect to the use of Telehealth in private offices and the home (rather than in the hospital). The data indicated that Telehealth can improve overall patient care by bettering the speed and accuracy of communication and diagnosis and the subsequent treatment of patients, saving physicians and patients time and money, reducing waiting lists, aiding the environment, reducing emergency visits and hospitalizations, addressing shortages of physicians (particularly in rural areas), increasing access to specialists, and enabling convenient distance education. These are just some of the many benefits of Telehealth which outweigh its disadvantages.
This study also was designed to extract clinicians’ opinions on avenues for improving Telehealth, which thus led to implications for future research. Barriers to the use of Telehealth were found to include concerns about security and IT support, lack of public knowledge of Telehealth’s existence, and installation and maintenance costs for the necessary equipment in the private sector.
The study suggests that Telehealth will become more widely available and accessible to the general public. The study also proposes that, through increased governmental support and funding, Telehealth should be advertised and promoted, researched in more depth (in part, to discourage misconceptions regarding Telehealth), collaborated on by stakeholders, and expanded.Graduat
A scoping review and thematic analysis of the effects of medical scribes on patients and physicians
No full textObjective: To investigate the effects of medical scribes on physician and patient satisfaction, physician burnout, and the educational experience of medical students and residents.
Methods: A scoping review was done by searching the databases PubMed, EMBASE, and CINAHL. Google Scholar was searched for grey literature. Relevant studies were analyzed qualitatively.
Results: Medical scribes increase physician satisfaction and decrease physician burnout, while having minimal impact on patient satisfaction. The effects of medical scribes on medical student and resident education appear positive in preliminary studies but have not yet been adequately studied. Very few studies of medical scribes have been conducted in Canada.
Conclusion: Medical scribes are a promising solution to the growing challenge of physician documentation-related burden fueled by electronic health records and electronic medical records. Studies regarding the impact of medical scribes in Canada are needed. Administrative hurdles to the implementation of medical scribes in Canadian hospitals could be a barrier to pilot studies in Canada.Graduat
How To Present Performance Data to Decision Makers in Healthcare
No full textHealthcare organizations are moving towards the use of dashboards for presenting performance data and away from the use of balanced scorecards, but there is little research that addresses whether dashboards are better than balanced scorecards. This study gathers qualitative and quantitative data from interviews with decision makers, 6 directors and 10 managers, from a large healthcare organization. Decision makers were presented with the most commonly used graphic formalisms from both the dashboard and the balanced scorecard, which were a gauge and tabular format respectively. The presentation contained information about healthcare decision making scenarios. Neither of the formats affected the decision maker’s ultimate decision on whether to take action and for both display formats the decision maker requested more information than what was presented to them. However, it was found that the gauge format was perceived as being easier to understand, better supported decision making and that it contained more complete information. Overall, the analysis reveals that 94% of participants preferred the graphic formalisms from a dashboard to the graphic formalisms in the balanced scorecard. This study shows that decision makers prefer dashboards to balanced scorecards when comparing the most common graphic formalisms found in balanced scorecards (tabular format) and dashboards (gauge format). The results are consistent with a move towards greater use of dashboards in healthcare. Theoretical implications of the work are [email protected]
Towards the development of a framework for integration of an electronic medical record into an undergraduate health informatics curriculum
No full textInformation technology (IT) is increasingly being used in the classroom to support instruction. This work addresses the integration of electronic medical records (EMRs) into undergraduate health informatics (HI) education. Such systems have been used to some extent in health professional education but effective integration into HI education remains a gap. This thesis explores the context of integration using the concept of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK). A structured literature review of previous integration efforts involving EMRs or similar systems in all disciplines was conducted as well as a documentation review specific to undergraduate HI programs to gather insight into current HI education. The findings from these were combined with those of an original qualitative research study done to gather views of instructors and students within one school. This work resulted in an application of TPCK which expands the original framework, describing key findings for the three knowledge bases and adding specific contextual considerations that emerged in terms of when to integrate, instructors, students, courses, technical aspects, system aspects, and overall learning pedagogy.
This thesis is organized into nine chapters, beginning with an introduction which explains the rationale for undertaking this work. Next, theoretical perspectives for IT integration are discussed along with the specific EMR integration challenge being addressed. The two additional literature reviews are presented along with their findings which then leads to the research questions for the original study which was undertaken. The next two chapters outline study methods and results. The main questions are then revisited and answered with study findings supplemented by the literature reviews. This leads to the discussion of an initial framework as well as theoretical and practical implications and future research directions for work in this area.Graduat
Evaluation of Health Data Warehousing: Development of a Framework and Assessment of Current Practices
Full text linkIf knowledge has been gathered by the practitioners’ community in the area of health data warehousing evaluation, it is mostly relying on anecdotal evidence instead of academic research. Isolated dimensions have received more attention and benefit from definitions and performance measures. However, very few cases can be found in the literature which describe how the assessment of the technology can be made, and these cases do not provide insight on how to systematize such assessment.
The research in this dissertation is aimed at bridging this knowledge gap by developing an evaluation framework, and conducting an empirical study to further investigate the state of health data warehousing evaluation and the use of the technology to improve healthcare efficiency, as well as to compare these findings with the proposed framework.
The empirical study involved an exploratory approach and used a qualitative method, i.e. audio-taped semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted in collaboration with the Healthcare Data Warehousing Association and involved 21 participants who were members of the Association working in a mid- to upper-level management capacity on the development and implementation of health data warehousing. All audio-taped interviews were transcribed and transcripts were coded using a qualitative analysis software package (NVivo, QSR International). Results were obtained in three areas. First, the study established that current health data warehousing systems are typically not formally evaluated. Systematic assessments relying on predetermined indicators and commonly accepted evaluation methods are very seldom performed and Critical Success Factors are not used as a reference to guide the system’s evaluation. This finding appears to explain why a literature review on the topic returns so few publications. Second, from patient throughput to productivity tracking and cost optimization, the study provided evidence of the contribution of data warehousing to the improvement of healthcare systems’ efficiency. Multiple examples were given by participants to illustrate the ways in which the technology contributed to streamlining the care process and increase healthcare efficiency in their respective organizations. Third, the study compared the proposed framework with current practices. Because formal evaluations were seldom performed, the empirical study offered limited feedback on the framework’s structure and rather informed its content and the assessment factors initially defined.Graduat
Risk assessment of technology-induced errors in health care
No full textThis study demonstrates that hybrid methods can be used for measuring the risk severity of technology-induced errors (TIE) that result from use of health information technology (HIT).
The objectives of this research study include:
1. Developing an integrated conceptual risk assessment model to measure the risk severity of technology-induced errors.
2. Analyzing the criticality and risk thresholds associated with TIE’s contributing factors.
3. Developing a computer-based simulation model that could be used to undertake various simulations of TIE’s problems and validate the results.
Using data from published papers describing three sample problems related to usability and technology-induced errors, hybrid methods were developed for assessing the risk severity and thresholds under various simulated conditions.
A risk assessment model (RAM) and its corresponding steps were developed. A computer-based simulation of risk assessment using the model was also developed, and several runs of the simulation were carried out. The model was tested and found to be valid.
Based on assumptions and published statistics obtained by publically available databases, we measured the risk severity and analyzed its criticality to classify risks of contributing factors into four different classes. The simulation results validated the efficiency and efficacy of the proposed methods with the sample [email protected]
Evaluating the Usability and Usefulness of an E-Learning Module for a Patient Clinical Information System at a Large Canadian Healthcare Organization
No full textAlberta Health Services (AHS) has introduced e-learning for health professionals to expand their existing training, offer flexible web-based learning opportunities, and reduce training time and cost. This study is designed to evaluate the usability and usefulness of an e-learning module for a patient clinical information system scheduling application. A cost-effective framework for usability evaluation has been developed and conceptualized as part of this research. Low-Cost Rapid Usability Engineering (LCRUE), Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA), and Heuristic Evaluation (HE) criteria for web-based learning were adapted and combined with the Software Usability Measurement Inventory (SUMI) questionnaire. To evaluate the introduction of the e-learning application, usability was assessed in two groups of users: frontline users and informatics consultant users. The effectiveness of the LCRUE, CTA, and HE when combined with the SUMI was also investigated. Results showed that the frontline users are satisfied with the usability of the e-learning platform. Overall, the informatics consultant users are satisfied with the application, although they rated the application as poor in terms of efficiency and control. The results showed that many areas where usability was problematic are related to general interface usability (GIU), and instructional design and content, some of which might account for the poorly rated aspects of usability. The findings should be of interest to developers, designers, researchers, and usability practitioners involved in development of e-learning [email protected]; [email protected]
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