Designing and evaluating a balanced scorecard for a health information management department in a Canadian urban non-teaching hospital
This report is a description of a balanced scorecard design and evaluation process conducted for the health information management department at an urban non-teaching hospital in Canada. The creation of the health information management balanced scorecard involved planning, development, implementation, and evaluation of the indicators within the balanced scorecard by the health information management department and required 6 months to complete. Following the evaluation, the majority of members of the health information management department agreed that the balanced scorecard is a useful tool in reporting key performance i...
Source: Health Informatics Journal - May 26, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Nippak, P. M., Veracion, J. I., Muia, M., Ikeda-Douglas, C. J., Isaac, W. W. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Development of a pseudo/anonymised primary care research database: Proof-of-concept study
This study confirms the potential for development of national anonymised research database from general practice records in addition to improving data collection for local or national audits and epidemiological projects. (Source: Health Informatics Journal)
Source: Health Informatics Journal - May 26, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: MacRury, S., Finlayson, J., Hussey-Wilson, S., Holden, S. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Social media and physicians: Exploring the benefits and challenges
This article aims to identify the potential benefits and challenges of adopting social media by physicians and demonstrates this by presenting findings from a survey conducted with physicians. A qualitative survey design was employed to achieve the research goal. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 physicians from around the world who were active users of social media. The data were analyzed using the thematic analysis approach. The study revealed six main reasons and six major challenges for physicians adopting social media. The main reasons to join social media were as follows: staying connected with collea...
Source: Health Informatics Journal - May 26, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Panahi, S., Watson, J., Partridge, H. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
A systematic review of eHealth interventions to improve health literacy
Implementation of eHealth is now considered an effective way to address concerns about the health status of health care consumers. The purpose of this study was to review empirically based eHealth intervention strategies designed to improve health literacy among consumers in a variety of settings. A computerized search of 16 databases of abstracts (e.g. Biomedical Reference Collection, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Computers & Applied Sciences Complete, Health Technology Assessments, MEDLINE) were explored in a systematic fashion to assess the presence of eHealth applications targeting health literacy...
Source: Health Informatics Journal - May 26, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Jacobs, R. J., Lou, J. Q., Ownby, R. L., Caballero, J. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Digital divide and information needs for improving family support among the poor and underserved
Despite of its emotional benefits, communication with family members who live abroad can present a large financial burden for low-income foreign-born individuals. The aims of this study were (1) to explore the current technologies available for low-cost communication with family living abroad and (2) to assess the level of awareness and use of low-cost technologies for family communication as well as related information needs among low-income foreign-born individuals. This mixed-methods study included an environmental scan, survey, and focus groups with low-income foreign-born individuals living in East Harlem in New York ...
Source: Health Informatics Journal - January 19, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Collins, S. A., Yoon, S., Rockoff, M. L., Nocenti, D., Bakken, S. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
eWasted time: Redundant work during hospital admission and discharge
Potential unintended consequences of health information technology include fragmentation of workflow and redundant work. We could not identify any prior direct observation studies that quantified redundant work related to health information technology in the clinical setting. Our objective was to quantify redundant work during admission and discharge to our general internal medicine service at an academic medical center. We performed a time and motion study at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada. We observed 13 clinicians performing an admission or a discharge, and the type and length of each task was reco...
Source: Health Informatics Journal - January 19, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: MacMillan, T. E., Slessarev, M., Etchells, E. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Information and decision support needs in patients with type 2 diabetes
Diabetes and its sequelae cause a growing burden of morbidity and mortality. For many patients living with diabetes, the Internet is an important source of health information and support. In the course of the development of an Interactive Health Communication Application, combining evidence-based information with behavior change and decision support, we assessed the characteristics, information, and decision support needs of patients with type 2 diabetes.
The needs assessment was performed in two steps. First, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 patients and seven physicians. In the second step, we developed a ...
Source: Health Informatics Journal - January 19, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Weymann, N., Härter, M., Dirmaier, J. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Implementation of integrated heterogeneous electronic electrocardiography data into Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital Information System
Electrocardiography is one of the most important non-invasive diagnostic tools for diagnosing coronary heart disease. The electrocardiography information system in Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital required a massive manual labor effort. In this article, we propose an approach toward the integration of heterogeneous electrocardiography data and the implementation of an integrated electrocardiography information system into the existing Hospital Information System. The system integrates different electrocardiography formats into a consistent electrocardiography rendering by using Java software. The interface acts as middle...
Source: Health Informatics Journal - January 19, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Khumrin, P., Chumpoo, P. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Recording signs of deterioration in acute patients: The documentation of vital signs within electronic health records in patients who suffered in-hospital cardiac arrest
This study aimed to examine documentation of vital signs in electronic health records. We examined the vital signs documented in the electronic health records of patients who had suffered an in-hospital cardiac arrest and on whom cardiopulmonary resuscitation was attempted between 2007 and 2011 (n = 228), in a 372-bed district general hospital. We assessed the completeness of vital sign data compared to VitalPAC™ Early Warning Score and the location of vital signs within the electronic health records. There was a noticeable lack of completeness of vital signs. Vital signs were fragmented through various sections of t...
Source: Health Informatics Journal - January 19, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Stevenson, J. E., Israelsson, J., Nilsson, G. C., Petersson, G. I., Bath, P. A. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Effects of electronic emergency-department whiteboards on clinicians time distribution and mental workload
Whiteboards are a central tool at emergency departments. We investigate how the substitution of electronic for dry-erase whiteboards affects emergency department clinicians’ mental workload and distribution of their time. With the electronic whiteboard, physicians and nurses spend more of their time in the work areas where other clinicians are present and whiteboard information is permanently displayed, and less in the patient rooms. Main reasons for these changes appear to be that the electronic whiteboard facilitates better timeouts and handovers. Physicians and nurses are, however, in the patient rooms for longer ...
Source: Health Informatics Journal - January 19, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Hertzum, M., Simonsen, J. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Students' trust judgements in online health information seeking
This study seeks to address this gap. A questionnaire-based survey was used to collect data from undergraduate students studying a variety of disciplines in one UK university. The Trust in Online Health Information Scale is proposed, and it includes the following dimensions: authority, style, content, usefulness, brand, ease of use, recommendation, credibility, and verification. In addition, inspection of responses to specific items/questions provides further insights into aspects of the information that were of specific importance in influencing trust judgements. (Source: Health Informatics Journal)
Source: Health Informatics Journal - November 4, 2015 Category: Information Technology Authors: Rowley, J., Johnson, F., Sbaffi, L. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Use of mobile devices in the emergency department: A scoping review
Electronic health records are increasingly used in regional health authorities, healthcare systems, hospitals, and clinics throughout North America. The emergency department provides care for urgent and critically ill patients. Over the past several years, emergency departments have become more computerized. Tablet computers and Smartphones are increasingly common in daily use. As part of the computerization trend, we have seen the introduction of handheld computers, tablets, and Smartphones into practice as a way of providing health professionals (e.g. physicians, nurses) with access to patient information and decision su...
Source: Health Informatics Journal - November 4, 2015 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dexheimer, J. W., Borycki, E. M. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
The coordination hub: Toward patient-centered and collaborative care processes
The organization and processes of today’s health and social care are becoming ever more complex as a consequence of societal trends, including an aging population and an increased reliance on care at home. One aspect of the increased complexity is that a single patient may receive care from several care providers, which easily results in situations with potentially incoherent, uncoordinated, and interfering care processes. In order to describe and analyze such situations, the article introduces the notion of a process conglomeration. This is defined as a set of patient-care processes that all concern the same patient...
Source: Health Informatics Journal - November 4, 2015 Category: Information Technology Authors: Winge, M., Johannesson, P., Perjons, E., Wangler, B. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Content analysis of neurodegenerative and mental diseases social groups
This article aims to characterize the different types of Facebook and Twitter groups for different mental diseases, their purposes, and their functions. We focused the search on depressive disorders, dementia, and Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and examined the Facebook (www.facebook.com) and Twitter (www.twitter.com) groups. We used four assessment criteria: (1) purpose, (2) type of creator, (3) telehealth content, and (4) free-text responses in surveys and interviews. We observed a total of 357 Parkinson groups, 325 dementia groups, 853 Alzheimer groups, and 1127 depression groups on Facebook and Twitte...
Source: Health Informatics Journal - November 4, 2015 Category: Information Technology Authors: Martinez-Perez, B., de la Torre-Diez, I., Bargiela-Florez, B., Lopez-Coronado, M., Rodrigues, J. J. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Mobile phone-based clinical guidance for rural health providers in India
There are few tried and tested mobile technology applications to enhance and standardize the quality of health care by frontline rural health providers in low-resource settings. We developed a media-rich, mobile phone–based clinical guidance system for management of fevers, diarrhoeas and respiratory problems by rural health providers. Using a randomized control design, we field tested this application with 16 rural health providers and 128 patients at two rural/tribal sites in Tamil Nadu, Southern India. Protocol compliance for both groups, phone usability, acceptability and patient feedback for the experimental gro...
Source: Health Informatics Journal - November 4, 2015 Category: Information Technology Authors: Gautham, M., Iyengar, M. S., Johnson, C. W. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
