Designing Patient-facing Health Information Technologies for the Outpatient Settings: A Literature Review

Introduction: The implementation of health information technologies (HITs) has changed the dynamics of doctor–patient communication in outpatient settings. Designing patient-facing HITs provides patients with easy access to healthcare information during the visit and has the potential to enhance the patient-centred care. Objectives: The objectives of this study are to systematically review how the designs of patient-facing HITs have been suggested and evaluated, and how they may potentially affect the doctor–patient communication and patient-centred care. Method: We conducted an online database search to identify articles published before December 2014 relevant to the objectives of this study. A total of nine papers have been identified and reviewed in this study. Results: Designing patient-facing HITs is at an early stage. The current literature has been exploring the impact of HITs on doctor–patient communication dynamics. Based on the findings of these studies, there is an emergent need to design more patient-centred HITs. There are also some papers that focus on the usability evaluation of some preliminary prototypes of the patient-facing HITs. The design styles of patient-facing HITs included sharing the health information with the patients on: (1) a separate patient display, (2) a projector, (3) a portable tablet, (4) a touch-based screen and (5) a shared computer display that can be viewed by both doctors and patients. Each of them had the strengths and limitations to facilitate the patient-centred care, and it is worthwhile to make a comparison of them in order to identify future research directions. Conclusion: The designs of patient-facing HITs in outpatient settings are promising in facilitating the doctor-patient communication and patient engagement. However, their effectiveness and usefulness need to be further evaluated and improved from a systems perspective.

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Impact of the COVID19 pandemic on the implementation of Health Information Technologies (HIT): a case study in Maternity Hospital of Lubango-Angola

10.21203/rs.3.rs-786387/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Tomas Hambili Paulo Sanjuluca ◽

Ricardo Cruz-Correia ◽

Anabela Antunes Almeida

Keyword(s):

Information Technology ◽

Information Systems ◽

Health Information Technology ◽

Health Information ◽

Information Technologies ◽

Maternity Hospital ◽

Health Information Technologies ◽

Technology Project ◽

Information Technology Project ◽

The Impact

Abstract Background COVID19 pandemic has shown the importance of data to manage health crises. Therefore, countries that were more mature regarding using Information Systems (IS) were better prepared to respond to their population needs. Unfortunately, in Angola, such Health Information Systems (HIS) maturity is very low, so new Health Information Technology (HIT) projects must change this scenario. Objective Describe the impact of COVID19 on a new health information technology project called "ObsCare Lubango" to collect essential data on deliveries and births at the Maternity Hospital in Lubango-Angola. Methods Retrieve data from the notes, communication events of the project management. Also, the collected data regarding obstetrics (pregnancies and childbirth) was from Jan 2019 to Apr 2021 (14 months before COVID19 and 14 months after the beginning of COVID19). The data analyzed were collected from the utilization audit trail that stores the sessions and clicks in the application logs. These logs are then presented in aggregated and anonymized form in a web interface. Results The start of COVID19 in Maternity halted the evolution of the health information project implementation. At the beginning of 2020, the usage of ObsCare Lubango was growing steadily (5.9%, 7.5%, 9.4% in the first three months), but rapidly dropped to 0% in the following months after the first of COVID arrived in late March. Conclusion COVID19 had a significant impact on the evolution of ObsCare Lubango and heavily impacted the quality of the data collected in the paper. COVID19 will probably increase the digital divide in health care between nations.

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The impact of health information technologies on quality improvement methodologies’ efficiency, throughput and financial outcomes: a retrospective observational study

BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making ◽

10.1186/s12911-016-0395-z ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Raed H. AlHazme ◽

Syed S. Haque ◽

Hal Wiggin ◽

Arif M. Rana

Keyword(s):

Quality Improvement ◽

Observational Study ◽

Health Information ◽

Information Technologies ◽

Retrospective Observational Study ◽

Financial Outcomes ◽

Health Information Technologies ◽

Improvement Methodologies ◽

The Impact

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Evolution of Human Factors Research and Studies of Health Information Technologies: The Role of Patient Safety

Yearbook of Medical Informatics ◽

10.1055/s-0038-1638835 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 22 (01) ◽

pp. 67-77 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

E. Borycki ◽

P. Carayon ◽

M.W.M. Jaspers ◽

S. Pelayo ◽

M.C. Beuscart-Zéphir

Keyword(s):

Patient Safety ◽

Human Factors ◽

Health Information ◽

Information Technologies ◽

Efficient Solutions ◽

Health Information Technologies ◽

Survey Paper ◽

Fundamental Dimension ◽

Usability Research ◽

The Impact

Summary Objectives: The objective of this survey paper is to present and explain the impact of recent regulations and patient safety initiatives (EU, US and Canada) on Human Factors (HF) /Usability studies and research focusing on Health Information Technology (HIT). Methods: The authors have selected the most prominent of these recent regulations and initiatives, which rely on validated HF and usability methods and concepts and aim at enhancing the specific process of identification and prevention of technology-induced errors throughout the lifecycle of HIT. Results: The analysis highlights several points of consensus: 1) safety initiatives or regulations applicable to Medical Devices (MD) tend to extend to HIT, 2) Usability is considered a fundamental dimension of HIT safety, 3) HF/Usability methods and the overall Human Centred Design (HCD) approach are considered efficient solutions to ensure the design of safe and usable HIT. However, it appears that MD manufacturers, and a fortiori HIT designers and developers are still far from being able to routinely apply HCD to their products Discussion and conclusion: On the research side, we need to analyze manufacturers' difficulties with the application of the HCD process and imposed standards. For each given category of HIT, we need to identify the fundamental usability dimensions and design principles likely to impact patient safety independently of workplace settings or organizations. These should be described in terms of usability flaws, corresponding usage problems experienced by users and related outcomes. This approach requires good quality and well structured reporting of Human Factors / Usability research studies on HIT.

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The Unintended Consequences of Health Information Technology Revisited

Yearbook of Medical Informatics ◽

10.15265/iy-2016-014 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 25 (01) ◽

pp. 163-169 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

J. Ash ◽

M. Berg ◽

E. Coiera

Keyword(s):

Information Technology ◽

Health Information Technology ◽

Health Information ◽

Information Technologies ◽

Rapid Development ◽

Health Care Service ◽

Unintended Consequences ◽

Negative Consequences ◽

Health Information Technologies ◽

The Impact

Summary Introduction: The introduction of health information technology into clinical settings is associated with unintended negative consequences, some with the potential to lead to error and patient harm. As adoption rates soar, the impact of these hazards will increase. Objective: Over the last decade, unintended consequences have received great attention in the medical informatics literature, and this paper seeks to identify the major themes that have emerged. Results: Rich typologies of the causes of unintended consequences have been developed, along with a number of explanatory frameworks based on socio-technical systems theory. We however still have only limited data on the frequency and impact of these events, as most studies rely on data sets from incident reporting or patient chart reviews, rather than undertaking detailed observational studies. Such data are increasingly needed as more organizations implement health information technologies. When outcome studies have been done in different organizations, they reveal different outcomes for identical systems. From a theoretical perspective, recent advances in the emerging discipline of implementation science have much to offer in explaining the origin, and variability, of unintended consequences. Conclusion: The dynamic nature of health care service organizations, and the rapid development and adoption of health information technologies means that unintended consequences are unlikely to disappear, and we therefore must commit to developing robust systems to detect and manage them.

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