Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association finds that the laboratory graphs displayed by many commercial electronic health records present information in potentially dangerous ways and could create serious safety problems. The authors urged ONC to stringently oversee testing of the software. Read the complete article: […]
Many current commercial EHRs have significant limitations in graphing capabilities of laboratory test results and often display results in nonstandardized fashion.
Health information technology is improving patient safety. It can also help to create new kinds of errors, which may potentially harm patients in a phenomenon some are calling “e-iatrogenesis.” These known incidents may be just the tip of a large iceberg. Lawsuits, real or worried about, mean some reports may […]
Video presentation on “Avoiding EHR-Related Unintended Consequences” at the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania in 2012. Click to see the video: Avoiding EHR-Related Unintended Consequences
With support from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), we used a rigorous, iterative process to develop a set of 9 self-assessment tools to optimize the safety and safe use of EHRs. These tools, referred to as the Safety Assurance Factors for EHR Resilience (SAFER) guides, could be used to self-assess safety and effectiveness of EHR implementations, identify specific areas of vulnerability, and create solutions and culture change to mitigate risks.
SAFER Electronic Health Records: Safety Assurance Factors for EHR Resilience Electronic health records (EHRs) have the potential to improve the quality and safety of health care. Since the enactment of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), organizations are adopting EHRs at an unprecedented rate. While […]
“Better EHR: Usability, Workflow and Cognitive Support in Electronic Health Records” — a book published by the National Center for Cognitive Informatics & Decision Making in Healthcare. One of the biggest complaints we hear from healthcare providers is that the EHR is clunky, difficult to use, and sometimes gets in […]
BACKGROUND: Correlation of data within electronic health records is necessary for implementation of various clinical decision support functions, including patient summarization. A key type of correlation is linking medications to clinical problems; while some databases of problem-medication links are available, they are not robust and depend on problems and medications […]
K22 LM011430 (PI – Allison B. McCoy, PhD 2013-2016) Effectively evaluating the appropriateness of clinical decision support alerts and responses is critical to improving patient safety through health information technology. This proposal will develop novel, semi- automated methods to facilitate such evaluations in both ambulatory and community hospital settings with […]
R01 LM011966 (PI – Adam Wright, PhD 2014-2018) Clinical decision support systems, such as drug-interaction alerts and preventive care reminders, when used effectively, have been shown to the quality, safety and efficiency of care. However, such systems are complex and sometimes fail – these failures are often not noticed for […]
