As the digitisation of healthcare progresses, there are still problems in terms of usability. With the goal of exploring solutions to these, an email inspired design for an electronic health record system was implemented using modern web technologies. The implementation was then evaluated in a series of usability tests conducted with five orthopaedic surgeons. Participants were asked to perform small tasks on a mocked data set, and the sessions were concluded with debriefing interviews. The focus was on the areas that are new in this design. The results suggest that the general design works, and no critical flaws were identified at this stage. Most of the issues that were found are likely to be solved with more training and experience, but there is still room for improvement. Participants had positive reactions overall, and plenty of feedback was collected regarding areas of improvement and feature suggestions. Due to the limitations of the test, the findings mostly relate to the intuitiveness of the design. To draw stronger conclusions regarding the viability of the design in a real environment, further testing with more data, realistic test tasks and more prerequisite training is necessary. / Digitiseringen inom sjukvården ökar, men det finns fortfarande problem när det kommer till användbarheten av de digitala system som finns på marknaden. Med målet att utforska lösningar på dessa problem implementerades i detta arbete en e-post-inspirerad gränssnittsdesign för ett digitalt journalsystem med hjälp av moderna webb-teknologier. Implementationen utvärderades genom användartester där fem ortopediska kirurger deltog. Deltagarna ombads använda gränssnittet för att utföra små testuppgifter med påhittad patientdata, och sessionerna avslutades med intervjufrågor. Fokuset var på de delar som är nya i den här designen jämfört med redan existerande system. Resultatet visar att det generella upplägget fungerar, och inga kritiska brister upptäcktes i detta stadie. De flesta av problemen som uppdagades kan troligen lösas genom att användarna ges möjlighet till mer träning och får mer erfarenhet, men det finns fortfarande förbättringutrymme. Deltagarna hade positiva reaktioner i allmänhet, och många förslag kring förbättringsområden och önskemål kring utökad funktionalitet samlades upp. På grund av användartestets begränsningar belyser resultaten i detta test mest vilka delar av gränssnittet som är intuitiva eller ej, medan det som är mer intressant för den här typen av dagligen använda system egentligen är huruvida de är effektiva att använda i det dagliga arbetet. För att kunna dra säkrare slutsatser kring om den här designen skulle fungera i riktiga arbetssituationer behövs mer testning med större mängder patientdata, mer realistiska testuppgifter och mer tid för deltagarna att lära sig systemet i förväg.

Electronic health records (EHRs) have been in use since the 1960s. U.S. rural hospital leaders and administrators face significant pressure to implement health information technology because of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. However, some leaders and managers of small rural hospital lack strategies to develop and implement EHRs. The focus of this descriptive phenomenological study was to explore lived experiences of hospital leaders and administrators who have used successful strategies to implement EHRs in small rural hospitals. Diffusion of innovation theory shaped the theoretical framework of this study. Data were collected through telephone interviews conducted with participants who successfully deployed EHRs at 10 hospitals in the Appalachian regions of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. Data analysis occurred using a modified Husserlian approach in search of common themes from interview transcripts. The main themes were strategies to address standards and incentives, implementation, and challenges. The exploration of these strategies provides insight that small rural hospital leaders and administrators could consider for implementing EHRs. The study findings might enable small rural hospital leaders and administrators to contribute to positive social change by engaging communities in using EHRs; these findings may also expand information sharing among individuals and organizations and build social relationships with an expectation of future benefits. Results from this study are designed to inform other small rural hospital leaders and administrators to conduct further research on successful strategies for implementation of EHRs.

Adoption of electronic medical record (EMR) technology systems of meaningful use has been slow despite the mandate by the U.S. government. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies used by health care leaders to implement EMR technology systems of meaningful use to take advantage of federal incentive payments. Diffusion of innovation theory provided the conceptual framework for the study. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 6 health care leaders from a military installation in the Southeast United States. Data were analyzed using software, coding, and inductive analyses. The 3 prominent themes were patient, provider, and champion. Alerts from an EMR technology system can increase providers' awareness and improve patient safety. Providers' involvement in every phase of an EMR system's implementation can improve the adoption rate. Champions play a critical role in successful adoption and implementation of EMR systems. Results of this study may assist health care leaders in implementing EMR systems to take advantage of federal incentive payments. Implications for positive social change include enhanced delivery of safe, high-quality health care.

Small nonprofit medical practices lack the technical expertise to implement electronic medical records (EMRs) that are consistent with federal meaningful-use requirements. Failure to comply with meaningful-use EMR requirements affects nonprofit community health care leaders' ability to receive reimbursement for care. Complexity theory was the conceptual framework used in this exploratory single case study. The purpose of the study was to explore the strategies nonprofit community health care leaders in Washington, DC used to implement EMRs in order to comply with the meaningful-use requirements. Data were collected via in-depth interviews with 7 purposively-selected health care leaders in a nonprofit clinic and were supplemented with archival records from the organization's policies and legislated mandates. Participants' responses were coded into invariant constituents, single concepts, and ideas to develop theme clusters. Member checking was used to validate the transcribed data which was subsequently coded into 4 themes that included: access to information, quality of care, training, and reporting implications. Recommendations include increased effectiveness of training provided to health care leaders or the perceptions of the patients as stakeholders in EMR implementation. By using strategies that facilitate seamless movement of information within a digital health care infrastructure, business leaders could benefit from improved reimbursement for services. Implications for social change include progress and transformation in the way health care access is provided.

The electronic health record (EHR) is an important part of the effort to improve health care and reduce costs in the United States. Primary care providers, among the largest group of caregivers in the nation, often experience difficulty with implementation and utilization of EHRs. Efforts to enhance the provider's effectiveness in the use of the EHR should result in improved patient outcomes as well as decreasing the overall cost of health care. Guided by the diffusion of innovation theory, this project was initiated to develop a plan for improved usage of the EHR in a primary care setting. A survey and observations were used to better understand how the providers and staff were using the EHR. Observations and a survey of 11 participants were completed. The observations utilizing a mock patient revealed issues related to the usability of screen information, information availability, and user preference for documentation. The mock patient scenario took 25-35 minutes, on average, to complete. All participants stated they had stayed late to input information on actual clinic patients or to clarify their documentation. The same 11 participants completed the Primary Care Information Project (PCIP) Post-Electronic Health Record Implementation: Survey of Providers responses. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the results. Most participants indicated that the screen font was difficult to read (72.7%), they had difficulty using the EHR (72.8%) and were not satisfied with its use (63.6%). The project recommendations include working with the vendor to improve information access and ongoing training. Improvements to the EHR should support social change by improving access to information at the point of care, enhancing quality treatment and improving patient care outcomes.

No description available.

Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) are digital versions of paper charts, used to record the treatment of different patients in hospitals. Clinical pathways are used as guidelines for how to treat different diseases, determined by observing outcomes from previous treatments. Sequential pattern mining is a version of data mining where the data mined is organized in sequences. It is a common research topic in data mining with many new variations on existing algorithms being introduced frequently. In a previous report, the sequential pattern mining algorithm PrefixSpan was used to mine patterns in EMRs to verify or suggest new clinical pathways. It was found to only be able to verify pathways partially. One of the reasons stated for this was that PrefixSpan was too inefficient to be able to mine at a low enough support to consider some items. In this report CSpan is used instead, since it is supposed to outperform PrefixSpan by up to two orders of magnitude, in order to improve runtime and thereby address the problems mentioned in the previous work. The results show that CSpan did indeed improve the runtime and the algorithm was able to mine at a lower minimum support. However, the output was only barely improved. / Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) är digitala versioner av behandlingshistoriken för patienter på sjukhus. Clinical pathways används som riktlinjer för hur olika sjukdomar borde behandlas, vilka bestäms genom att observera utkomsten av tidigare behandlingar. Sequential pattern mining är en typ av data mining där datan som behandlas är strukturerad i sekvenser. Det är ett vanligt forskningsområde inom data mining där många nya variationer av existerande algoritmer introduceras frekvent. I en tidigare rapport användes sequential pattern mining algoritmen PrefixSpan på EMRs för att verifiera eller föreslå nya clinical pathways. Den kunde dock endast verifiera pathways delvis. En av anledningarna som nämndes för detta var att PrefixSpan var för ineffektiv för att kunna köras med en tillräckligt låg support för att kunna finna vissa åtgärder i en behandling. I den här rapporten används istället CSpan, eftersom den ska överprestera PrefixSpan med upp till två storleksordningar, för att förbättra körningstiden och därmed adressera problemen som nämns i den tidigare rapporten. Resultaten visar att CSpan förbättrade körningstiden och algoritmen kunde köras med lägre support. Däremot blev utdatan knappt förbättrad.

No description available.

Delays in the process of diagnosing and treating cancer are common and lead to confusion and undesirable outcomes. Care coordinators are often embedded within the system of care to manage follow-up care. Electronic and real-time reminder systems can be used to support the care coordinator’s work, but electronic health record (EHR) usability is known to be poor. This study, completed in collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Connecticut Healthcare System, evaluated the Cancer Coordination and Tracking System (CCTS), an EHR-linked, web-based tool for cancer care management. A set of expert-driven and user-driven usability engineering methods was applied to comprehensively identify and analyze usability problems within the system. Ten current CCTS users were engaged in the study to help identify problem. 101 (62.3%) problems were identified through expert-driven methods, 56 (34.6%) were identified by user-driven methods, and 5 (3.1%) were identified through both types of methods. The list of 162 unique problems were prioritized and twelve high priority problems were highlighted. Design recommendations were developed to address each of these high priority problems.

Le dossier médical personnel, DMP, appartient aux données médicales informatisées. La thèse consiste à observer la politique de communication et d’information des acteurs publics et des acteurs privés de santé dans le dispositif de mise en œuvre du dossier médical personnel, désormais partagé (DMP) et de ses enjeux. Le périmètre est circonscrit à la médecine de ville, généraliste et spécialiste, ses usages et le comportement de l’ensemble des acteurs, incluant le patient, face à cet outil mis en place par la politique publique de santé dans le cadre de la régulation et de la rationalisation de la santé. La réflexion pose dans un premier temps les piliers de la réflexion, délimitant le système concerné, complexe et les concepts primaires. Les acteurs et les relations qu’ils entretiennent sont observés dans le cadre de leur collaboration spécifique sur le dossier médical personnel. La politique publique est observée et étudiée sous l’axe conjoint de la communication et de l’information dans un deuxième temps, suivie par l’analyse du discours généré par ce dispositif de santé. Un point important de la thèse se pose sur les données captées, leur hébergement, la dématérialisation, leur sécurité, leur archivage et leur traçage et traçabilité sans oublier la personnalisation de la médecine et le changement de rapport entre soignant et patient. Ce projet structurant du système de santé français a des conséquences sur les systèmes d’informations et le système d’information de santé, et la conduite du changement se répercute vers un changement de modèle économique lié à l’économie des réseaux / The Patient’s Medical Record (DMP) belongs to the medical electronic data. The thesis consists in observing the communication and information policy developed by the public and private actors of health in the implementation mechanism of the DMP, which is now shared, and of its challenges. The scope is restricted to urban medicine, general practitioners or specialists, the uses and behavior of the whole group of the people concerned, including the patient, in relation to the instrument set up within the context of health regulation and rationalization. As a first step, in order to lay the foundations of our reflexion, we delineate the relevant system (a complex one), and the key concepts. The actors and their relationships are observed as part of their specific collaboration in the DMP. As a second step, the public policy is observed and studied through the double focus of communication and information; then the language generated by the DMP is analyzed. An important point of the thesis lies in the collected data: hosting, dematerialization, safety, archiving, trackage and traceability, including the customizing of medicine and the fact that the relationship between the patient and the caregiver is changing. All this is studied throughout the leading theme of communication and the relevant sectors affected by e-health and more specifically by the DMP. This French development project of the care system has consequences upon the information systems and the health information system. Moreover, the change management has repercussions on a changing economic model, which is linked with the network economy.