electronic health records

Timothy Kelley writes in “Managed Care” re: Can Computers ‘Do No Harm’?

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 […]

Avoiding EHR-Related Unintended Consequences

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

The SAFER guides: empowering organizations to improve the safety and effectiveness of electronic health records

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

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

“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 […]

Decision Making and Clinical Work of Test Result Follow-up in Health IT Settings

AHRQ R01HS022087 (PI – Hardeep Singh, MD, MPH 2013-2017) A significant number of patients with abnormal test results “fall through the cracks” of the health care system and experience delays in diagnosis and treatment. Although electronic health records enhance the communication of abnormal test results, they do not guarantee the prompt […]

State of the Art in Clinical Informatics: Evidence and Examples

OBJECTIVE: The field of clinical informatics has expanded substantially in the six decades since its inception. Early research focused on simple demonstrations that health information technology (HIT) such as electronic health records (EHRs), computerized provider order entry (CPOE), and clinical decision support (CDS) systems were feasible and potentially beneficial in […]

Early Results of the Meaningful Use Program for Electronic Health Records

In 2009, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act established Medicare and Medicaid incentive programs to encourage the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) by hospitals and eligible professionals. Under Medicare, eligible professionals who show “meaningful use” of certified EHRs are eligible for payments up to […]

Health care transformation through collaboration on open-source informatics projects: integrating a medical applications platform, research data repository, and patient summarization

BACKGROUND: The Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) program seeks to conquer well-understood challenges in medical informatics through breakthrough research. Two SHARP centers have found alignment in their methodological needs: (1) members of the National Center for Cognitive Informatics and Decision-making (NCCD) have developed knowledge bases to support problem-oriented […]