There is now widespread recognition of the powerful potential of electronic health record (EHR) systems to improve the healthcare delivery system. The benefits of EHRs grow even larger when the health data within their purview are seamlessly shared, aggregated, and processed across different providers, settings, and institutions. Yet, the plethora of idiosyncratic conventions for identifying the same clinical content in different information systems is a fundamental barrier to fully leveraging the potential of EHRs. Only by adopting vocabulary standards that provide the lingua franca across these local dialects can computers efficiently move, aggregate, and use health data for decision support, outcomes management, quality reporting, research, and many other purposes. In this regard, the ICF is an important standard for physiotherapists because it provides a framework and standard language for describing health and health-related states. However, physiotherapists and other healthcare professionals capture a wide range of data such as patient histories, clinical findings, tests and measurements, procedures, etc. for which other vocabulary standards such as LOINC and SNOMED CT are crucial for interoperable communication between different electronic systems. In this paper we describe how the ICF and other internationally accepted vocabulary standards could advance physiotherapy practice and research by enabling data sharing and reuse by EHRs. We highlight how these different vocabulary standards fit together within a comprehensive record system, and how EHRs can make use of them, with a particular focus on enhancing decision-making. By incorporating the ICF and other internationally accepted vocabulary standards into our clinical information systems, physiotherapists will be able to leverage the potent capabilities of EHRs and contribute our unique clinical perspective to other healthcare providers within the emerging electronic health information infrastructure.
All practising allied health professionals should keep up-to-date and accurate records that conform to active legal requirements and existing international guidelines. In addition to the existing legal requirements, the emergence of e-health and the electronic era will trigger major changes in patient record management by physiotherapists.
Purpose: In the context of training health professionals in Switzerland in evidence-based practice, the preconceptions of active researchers might be playing a major role in the development of research methodologies within allied health and nursing professions (AHNP). The objective of this study was to identify the preconceptions (understanding of the meaning of clinical research) of researchers in AHNP at the Health Schools of the University of Applied Sciences, Western Switzerland (UASWS). Emerging theories were then discussed and challenged with available literature and participant profiles. Method: Anonymous semi-directed interviews of 20 researchers (internal and external to the university) arising from various professions, including medical and non-AHNP, were conducted between 2007 and 2008. Results: Preconceptions were grouped into eight categories that were used by 64% of participants (SD 21.8), indicating that the categories worked well in evoking participants’ preconceptions. Categories of themes covering the dimensions of clinical research definition are limits, aim, fields of professional application, professional identity, education, sensitivity of term, associated images, and relevance of a definition. Conclusion: Nurses appear to have specific preconceptions about clinical research. Due to their dominance in terms of number of professionals, they play a determining role in the development of research in AHNP in Switzerland. Researchers in the health division of the UASWS are suffering from a lack of access to experimental research and training in Switzerland. The methodological background experience of researchers seems to play a role in the understanding of clinical research, as from the available results researchers with an experimental background seem to have a larger definition of clinical research. Recommendation: authors recommend the use of the term “patient oriented clinical research” for AHNP when talking about CR.
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