By examining the major components and interdependencies of the home health care delivery system, a human factors perspective offers insights into ways that safety and quality can be compromised and can help pave the way for new modes of thinking in home health care policy.
Consumer health IT application design would benefit from the use of human factors and ergonomics design and evaluation methods. Considering the context in which home-based consumer health IT applications are used will likely affect the ability of these applications to positively impact the quality, safety and efficiency of patient care.
Personal health records (PHRs), centralized places for people to electronically store and organize their health information, can benefit both patients and doctors. This qualitative study of health insurers' PHRs for enrollees reveals potential benefits and challenges. Insurers' ability to put claims-based data into the PHR offers an advantage. However, consumers are concerned about sharing personal health information with insurers and about Internet security. Physicians question (1) the validity of claims data in making treatment decisions and (2) whether accessing these PHRs is worth the disruptions to their workflow. This paper offers possible solutions that may lead to more widespread adoption of insurer PHRs. [Health Affairs 28, no. 2 (2009): 377-389; 10.1377/hlthaff.28.2.377] A p e r s o na l h e a lt h r e c o r d (PHR) is a centralized place for people to electronically store and organize their personal health information, separate from electronic or paper medical records maintained by their health care providers. Many envision patients' control over PHR content and access, portability, and the capability to maintain a lifelong patient history as essential components of a valuable PHR.1 Others argue that PHRs' value will be realized with applications that expand patients' use of stored information to actively manage their care. Many advocates believe that PHRs have the potential to revolutionize health care and improve quality by engaging patients in their care, improving patient-clinician communication, and, ultimately, improving health outcomes and reducing costs.
CHI designers can employ the use case-based evaluation approach to assess the fit of a CHI intervention with patients' health work, in the context of their daily activities and environment, which would be difficult or impossible to evaluate by laboratory-based studies.
Objectives The HL7® fast healthcare interoperability resources (FHIR®) specification has emerged as the leading interoperability standard for the exchange of healthcare data. We conducted a scoping review to identify trends and gaps in the use of FHIR for clinical research. Materials and methods We reviewed published literature, federally funded project databases, application websites, and other sources to discover FHIR-based papers, projects, and tools (collectively, “FHIR projects”) available to support clinical research activities. Results Our search identified 203 different FHIR projects applicable to clinical research. Most were associated with preparations to conduct research, such as data mapping to and from FHIR formats (n = 66, 32.5%) and managing ontologies with FHIR (n = 30, 14.8%), or post-study data activities, such as sharing data using repositories or registries (n = 24, 11.8%), general research data sharing (n = 23, 11.3%), and management of genomic data (n = 21, 10.3%). With the exception of phenotyping (n = 19, 9.4%), fewer FHIR-based projects focused on needs within the clinical research process itself. Discussion Funding and usage of FHIR-enabled solutions for research are expanding, but most projects appear focused on establishing data pipelines and linking clinical systems such as electronic health records, patient-facing data systems, and registries, possibly due to the relative newness of FHIR and the incentives for FHIR integration in health information systems. Fewer FHIR projects were associated with research-only activities. Conclusion The FHIR standard is becoming an essential component of the clinical research enterprise. To develop FHIR’s full potential for clinical research, funding and operational stakeholders should address gaps in FHIR-based research tools and methods.
The growth of digitized health data presents exciting opportunities to leverage the health information technology (IT) infrastructure for advancing biomedical and health services research. However, challenges impede use of those resources effectively and at scale to improve outcomes. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) led a collaborative effort to identify challenges, priorities, and actions to leverage health IT and electronic health data for research. Specifically, ONC led a review of relevant literature and programs, key informant interviews, and a stakeholder workshop to identify electronic health data and health IT infrastructure gaps. This effort resulted in the National Health IT Priorities for Research: A Policy and Development Agenda, which articulates an optimized health information ecosystem for scientific discovery. This article outlines 9 priorities and recommended actions to be implemented in collaboration with the research and informatics communities for realizing this vision.
Background Workflow automation, which involves identifying sequences of tasks that can be streamlined by using technology and modern computing, offers opportunities to address the United States health care system's challenges with quality, safety, and efficiency. Other industries have successfully implemented workflow automation to address these concerns, and lessons learned from those experiences may inform its application in health care. Objective Our aim was to identify and synthesize (1) current approaches in workflow automation across industries, (2) opportunities for applying workflow automation in health care, and (3) considerations for designing and implementing workflow automation that may be relevant to health care. Methods We conducted a targeted review of peer-reviewed and gray literature on automation approaches. We identified relevant databases and terms to conduct the searches across sources and reviewed abstracts to identify 123 relevant articles across 11 disciplines. Results Workflow automation is used across industries such as finance, manufacturing, and travel to increase efficiency, productivity, and quality. We found automation ranged from low to full automation, and this variation was associated with task and technology characteristics. The level of automation is linked to how well a task is defined, whether a task is repetitive, the degree of human intervention and decision-making required, and the sophistication of available technology. We found that identifying automation goals and assessing whether those goals were reached was critical, and ongoing monitoring and improvement would help to ensure successful automation. Conclusion Use of workflow automation in other industries can inform automating health care workflows by considering the critical role of people, process, and technology in design, testing, implementation, use, and ongoing monitoring of automated workflows. Insights gained from other industries will inform an interdisciplinary effort by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to outline priorities for advancing health care workflow automation.
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