Health Information Technology Commons^™

Exploring Cloud Computing Implementation Issues In Healthcare Industry, Sadaf Ashtari, Ali Eydgahi, Huei Lee

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

Nowadays, cloud computing—as a flexible, collaborative, cost effective and scalable computational approach—is being applied within different public and private organizations. Furthermore, the use of cloud-based applications is becoming more widespread on both the organizational and individual level than it has been in the past. Healthcare is one discipline that could benefit from cloud-based applications; however, because of various privacy and security issues, it has been adopted more slowly than in many other disciplines. The purpose of this preliminary study is to investigate the related literature in order to explore the cloud computing implementation issues in the healthcare industry. Technological, Organizational, …

Can Psychology Research Inform Health Information Data Collection?, A. Michelle Wright

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

Conclusions drawn from electronic medical records (EMRs) are only as accurate as the data provided. Recent findings by psychologists and health researchers may help streamline health information data collection and subsequent data analysis. Specifically, four areas will be discussed: (1) Standardization of terms between the patient and the health professionals, (2) Impact of patient inattention and fatigue when responding to health measures, (3) Importance of source labeling within the medical record (e.g., self-administered questionnaire, responded via phone, etc.), (4) Cognitive load on patients when using mobile health technology (e.g., apps, tablets, online patient portal, etc.). Research suggests consideration of these …

Forecasting The Potential For Emergency Department Overcrowding, Jeff Skinner, Raymond J. Higbea

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

This research study used the Dixon Forecasting Model (DFM), a Bed Ratio (BR), and the National Emergency Department Overcrowding Scale (NEDOCS) to establish a reliable two-hour overcrowding forecasting tool within the Emergency Department. The DFM and BR were used together to predict severe overcrowding based on current census data. This two hour prediction was then be validated by the real-time NEDOCS and real-time Bed Ratio scores. Data analysis indicates that the two-hour predicted BR is moderately correlated with a real-time NEDOCS (correlation coefficient 0.508) and real-time BR (correlation coefficient 0.492) at the forecasted time. Further data analysis revealed a strong …

A Case Study Perspective Toward Data-Driven Process Improvement For Balanced Perioperative Workflow, Jim Ryan, Barbara Doster, Sandra Daily, Carmen Lewis

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

Based on a 143-month longitudinal study of an academic medical center, this paper examines operations management practices of continuous improvement, workflow balancing, benchmarking, and process reengineering within a hospital’s perioperative operations. Specifically, this paper highlights data-driven efforts within perioperative sub-processes to balance overall patient workflow by eliminating bottlenecks, delays, and inefficiencies. This paper illustrates how dynamic technological activities of analysis, evaluation, and synthesis applied to internal and external organizational data can highlight complex relationships within integrated processes to identify process limitations and potential process capabilities, ultimately yielding balanced workflow and improvement. Study implications and/or limitations are also included.

Realizing The Value Of Ehr Systems: Critical Success Factors, Elizabeth A. Regan, Jumee Wang

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

Now that a majority of hospitals and primary care physicians have made the transition to electronic health record (EHR) systems, realizing value from this investment has become a major issue. The issue raises two key questions: Why do so many EHR implementations continue to fall short of achieving intended healthcare outcome goals? What differentiates those that succeed from those that fall short? This article builds on prior research using a systems framework to analyze the EHR implementation process. It focuses on ten common themes (CSFs) that appear to differentiate institutions which achieve positive healthcare outcomes from those that do not. …

Patient Handoffs: A Review Of Current Status In The Usa, Farzad Rafi Razi

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

The goal of this paper is to highlight the status of patient handoffs in the United States. A summary of what patient handoffs are, and the current processes through which handoffs are carried out will be described, as well as the benefits and limitations of each approach. In addition, this project will describe some major flaws in the handoff system, and suggestions to how they may be remedied. This paper will conclude by mentioning a new system which has reduced handoff errors, and propose an extension to this research in order to instigate further developments.

Does Unlearning Impact Interaction Of Ehr End-Users?, Julee Hafner, Cherie Noteboom

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

Organizations need to remain competitive in today’s marketplace. Technology change impacts knowledge competencies that require alteration quickly, to reduce operating costs, and eliminate human errors. Updating computer system documentation procedures require unlearning to maintain competency. Physician end-users possess specialized competencies, or knowledge base in documentation of patient data to the degree that these operations have become automatic. To change the knowledge base of practitioners, end-users must use intellectual capital to unlearn patient care EHR documentation. This study focused on competency change, with the perceptions and influencers of unlearning of old competencies during EHR updates.

Eemi - An Electronic Health Record For Pediatricians: Adoption Barriers, Services And Use In Mexico, Juan Carlos L. Jarquin, Roberto Garza, Lorena G. Gomez Dr., Manuel J. Silva-Cavazos, Víctor J. Lara-Díaz

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

The use of paper health records and handwritten prescriptions are prone to preset errors of misunderstanding instructions or interpretations that derive in affecting patients’ health. Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems are useful tools that among other functions can assists physicians’ tasks such as finding recommended medicines (and their contraindications) and dosage for a given diagnosis, filling prescriptions and support data sharing with other systems. By using an EHR many errors can be avoided. This paper presents EEMI (Expediente Electrónico Médico Infantil), a Children EHR focused on assisting pediatricians in their daily office practice. EEMI functionality keeps the relationships among diagnosis, …

Smart Home Healthcare Settings: A Qualitative Study Of The Domain Boundary, Ahmad Alaiad, Dorsa Ziaei, Muhammad Al-Ayyad

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

Addressing the health problems of the 21st century will require individuals to use a new set of medical and public health resources that extend beyond historic and traditional medical devices and are built on current and smart information technologies. Much of these new medical tools was originally designed by device manufacturers to be used only in clinical settings and by trained healthcare professionals but recently are finding their way into the home nevertheless. Their migration to the home poses many challenges to both caregivers and care recipients. In order to facilitate their migration to the home, it is very important …

Examining The Performance Of Older And Younger Adults When Interacting With A Mobile Solution Supporting Levels Of Dexterity, Ayidh Alqahtani, Abdulwhab Alsalmah, Ahmad Alaiad

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

The purpose of this research is to develop and evaluate a mobile game to support the needs of adults aiming to strengthen their perceptual and dexterity skills. The game itself is an advanced version of a Whack-A-Mole style game, in which the user is required to select visual targets, as quickly and accurately as possible. In this version of the game, the user is able to modify the speed, target size, and availability of distracters. In this paper, the performance between older and younger users has been compared. Older adults had spent more time and missed more compared to the …

3rd Ichita Program, Western Michigan University

International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement Brochures

The Third International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement was held October 30-31 at Western Michigan University with the theme: "Transforming Healthcare Through Information Technology." This includes the program and information about the keynote speakers and other presenters.

Gpu-Accelerated Influenza Simulations For Operational Modeling, Peter Holvenstot

Masters Theses

Simulations of influenza spread are useful for decision-making during public-health emergencies. Policy-makers use models to predict disease spread and estimate the effects of various intervention strategies. Effective modeling of targeted intervention strategies requires accurate modeling of individual-level behavior and transmission. However, this greatly increases the computational costs of these agent-based models. In addition, if the models are used as an outbreak progresses, some operational decisions must occur rapidly in order to contain the spread of the disease.

Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are a type of specialized processor used to drive graphical displays. Many recent devices also allow users to write …

Analytical Methods For Planning And Scheduling Daily Work In Inpatient Care Settings: Opportunities For Research And Practice, Laila Cure Ph.D.

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

This article identifies current challenges in the planning and execution of daily work in inpatient care settings. Inadequate planning of the processes and resources associated with inpatient care services may negatively affect their effectiveness. It may also lead to burnout of healthcare workers when the resulting work plan is unknowingly infeasible or does not incorporate the necessary human factors considerations. This paper provides with an overview of current research on inpatient care workflow planning, as well as with directions for researchers and practitioners to advance this problem using a combination of human factors engineering and analytical methods.

The Principles Of Good Health Care In The U.S. In The 2010s, Andrew S. Targowski

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

The purpose of this investigation is to define the principles of good health in the U.S. in the 21st century. The interdisciplinary, civilizational methodology is applied to establish roots of this health care at the national level. Among findings are; well-being of Americans” is the constitutional opportunity of an American, good health of Americans is a constituent of their well-being, basic health care should be perceived as the controlled right of a citizen. Human and societal wisdom requires mentally healthy people. Human and societal wisdom requires well educated citizens. The state of health care of the Americans is in a …

Digital Illness Narratives: A New Form Of Health Communication, Jofen Han, Jo Wiley

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

Social media has dramatically affected the way information is accessed and circulated. Social networking sites continue to create on-line communities where every participant plays an active role in seeking and sharing information. While social networks have profoundly impacted different industries in terms of communication between business-to-business and business-to-consumer interaction, they also have had significant impact on many stakeholders in the healthcare communication system. This report describes how a non-profit social networking site called CaringBridge can help patients communicate about their health challenges and gain support though their writings. When traditional “Illness Narratives” (a patient’s reflective writing about his/her illness) become …

Predictive Modeling In Post-Reform Marketplace, Wu-Chyuan Gau, Andrew France, Maria E. Moutinho, Carl D. Smith, Morgan C. Wang

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

Healthcare reform changes everything. Annual and lifetime dollar limits, underwriting, and preexisting condition exclusion will all be eliminated by 2014. Insurers must offer coverage to any individual regardless of their health status. An overwhelming majority of those who will be mandated to purchase individual insurance is currently uninsured or under-insured. Insurers have insufficient internal data to estimate costs for this new population. A study on how to apply predictive modeling to deal with risks and uncertainties facing healthcare industry in the post-reform marketplace is presented in this article.

Health Information Technology In American Medicine: A Historical Perspective, Kenneth A. Fisher

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

Medical care has had great advances during and especially after the 19th century. With these advances has come the moral imperative to provide care to all in a nation regardless of the ability to pay. One of the great dilemmas of our time is how to provide this care without consuming other national priorities. There exists a debate between government-centered or patient-centered models of care and how electronic medical records could facilitate this process.

Relationships, Caring, And Near Misses: Michael’S Story, Sharie Falan, Bernard Han

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

Health care errors are costly to both patients, insurance companies, and put additional strain on existing resources. This research paper is a case study about a patient’s experience in health care with the electronic health care record and the information used to deliver care. This case study will demonstrate that although the electronic health care record does provided information, the information contained within it can be confusing, contribute to health care errors, near misses, and may have an impact on health provider relationships with patients. Information and systems issues are identified with recommendations to help avert health care errors and …

Theoretical, Methodological And Practical Challenges In Designing Formative Evaluations Of Personal Ehealth Tools, Michael S. Dohan, Joseph Tan

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

This article describes the challenges experienced in designing a formative evaluation of a mobile personal eHealth tool for disease symptom tracking, in the context of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases management. As this unique context is characterized by regular visits with physicians, and the need to report disease activity to the physician, a mixed methodology is used to assess the fit of the technology to the context, and a multilevel model is used to evaluate theoretical links between patient and physician. Other issues include selection of sampling techniques, recruitment, and preventing study attrition by participants.

Data Interoperability And Information Security In Healthcare, Reid Berryman, Nathan Yost, Nicholas Dunn, Christopher Edwards

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

Interoperability represents the accurate exchange of information and the use of the information for effective decision making. For information exchange to be interoperable, it must be widely interpretable between multiple information systems. At a more granular level, it focuses on the accuracy, consistency and reliability of information exchanged between systems. The healthcare industry has defined many problems when it comes to the best practice of interoperability. Technical, financial, and managerial barriers are present that produce large scale complex problems for the whole industry. Although, a variety of potential solutions have been developed. Some have even been implemented already focusing on …

What Is Your Informatics Skills Level? --The Reliability Of An Informatics Competency Measurement Tool, Xiaomeng Sun, Sharie Falan

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

To determine the reliability of the nursing informatics self- assessment tool which was developed and extended from Kaminski’s assessment tool among health care students. It was hypothesized that there would be no significant difference in participant responses for a test/retest survey completed by nursing students.

Mobile Health Information Technology And Patient Care: Methods, Themes, And Research Gaps, Bahae Samhan, Majid Dadgar, K. D. Joshi

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

The focus of the healthcare industry on delivering Patient-Centered Care (PCC) using Mobile Health Information Technologies (MHIT) is rapidly increasing, yet this critical area is still under-researched in the IS/IT literature despite the fact that mobile devices and their applications are widely spread and are likely to change the way of using and applying healthcare services. In this study we further analyze the literature reviewed in Dadgar et al (2013) to uncover research gaps in the area of MHIT which needs further attention. This work posits a preliminary research agenda, in forms of gaps, which can help propel future work …

A Balanced Perspective To Perioperative Process Management Aligned To Hospital Strategy, Jim Ryan, Barbara Doster, Sandra Daily, Carmen Lewis

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

Dynamic technological activities of analysis, evaluation, and synthesis can highlight complex relationships within integrated processes to target improvement and ultimately yield improved processes. Likewise, the identification of existing process limitations, potential capabilities, and subsequent contextual understanding are contributing factors that yield measured improvement. This case study examines process management practices of balanced scorecard and dashboards to monitor and improve the perioperative process, aligned to overall hospital goals at strategic, tactical, and operational levels. Based on a 120-month longitudinal study of an academic medical center, this study investigates how integrated information systems and business analytics can improve perioperative efficiency and effectiveness …

Michigan Health Information Network (Mihin) Shared Services Vs. The Hie Shared Services In Other States, Devon K. O'Toole, Sean M. O'Toole, Logan Steely

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

This paper explores selected states health information exchanges in regards to how they are implemented and used. Health information exchanges are broken down and a concise background is given for a better understanding of how states are implementing their health information exchanges. This paper not only examines states use of their health information exchange, but how they will connect to create a nationwide health information network.

Message From The Transactions Editor, Huei Lee

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

No abstract provided.

Monitoring And Assisting Maternity-Infant Care In Rural Areas (Mamicare), Juan C. Lavariega Dr., Gustavo Córdova, Lorena G. Gómez, Alfonso Avila Dr.

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

We present our project called MAMICare that is motivated by the alarming number of maternity and infant deaths in rural areas due mainly to a poor monitoring of pregnancy progress and lack of appropriate alerting mechanism in case of abnormal gestation evolution. We are proposing an information technology solution based on mobile devices, and health sensors such as ECG (electrocardiogram), stethoscope, pulse-oximeter, and blood-glucose meter to automatically collect relevant health data for a better monitoring of pregnant women. In this paper we address the current status of the maternity infant death problem especially in rural areas of Mexico. We review …

The Impact Of Big Data On The Healthcare Information Systems, Kuo Lane Chen, Huei Lee

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

This article explores the possible impact of big data on healthcare information systems. Possible research issues include: 1). What applications in healthcare information systems are impacted most? 2). What algorithm/programs will be used for big data? 3). What privacy, security, and ethical issues are there for big data? In the biology area, big data becomes the newest technology for genomics. Other possible areas include pharmacovigilance, patient care, and medical supply chain management.

Managing Government Regulatory Requirements For Security And Privacy Using Existing Standard Models, Gregory Schymik, Dan Shoemaker

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

This paper posits the use of a well-established standard approach to Federal compliance, which can be easily adapted to satisfy all legal and regulatory requirements for protection of patient personally identifiable information (PII) in health organizations. This approach is embodied in the three standards that dictate how to comply with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). These standards also provide an excellent foundation for organizing a secure operation anywhere. The discussion revolves around the application of the FIPS 199 and FIPS 200/NIST 800-53(4) standard approach to the satisfaction of the present and upcoming legal and regulatory requirements for health …

Hdqm2: Healthcare Data Quality Maturity Model, Javier Mauricio Pinto-Valverde, Miguel Ángel Pérez-Guardado, Lorena Gomez-Martinez, Martha Corrales-Estrada, Juan Carlos Lavariega-Jarquín

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

Data Quality is a central issue within the development of Healthcare Systems, for both the delivery of the service as well as for the establishment of public policies. Public and private Healthcare Systems in Latin America do not have a framework of reference which allows them to have knowledge of the level of Data Quality (DQ). In other frameworks found within literature the evaluation of DQ has been centered within the dimensions. The intention of this research is to build an evaluation model for DQ based on maturity. This research contributes an innovating and comprehensive model, based on the data …

The Role Of Mobile Technology In Enhancing The Use Of Personal Health, Mohamed Abouzahra, Joseph Tan

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

Healthcare industry is essential for the wellbeing of society members, however this industry is characterized by high cost and by plagued by serious medical errors. Personal health records (PHR) can play an important role in solving healthcare problems by enhancing patients’ involvement in their treatment, and improving patient-provider communication. Despite the potential importance of PHR systems, they suffer from low adoption rate because of several factors such as digital divide and lack of training. In this paper we propose that mobile PHR systems (MPHR) can aid in overcoming barriers to adopt PHR. We present a theoretical model based on theory …