Health Information Technology Commons^™

An Attitudinal Analysis Of Preventive Health Care Information Users: With Insights From Social Media, Joseph D. Cangelosi, David Kim, Edward Ranelli

Atlantic Marketing Journal

As the U.S. health care system continues to restructure itself, an increased emphasis on preventive health care will be a very important component. It is vital that preventive health care information (PHCI) be readily accessible and applied. This research explores the impact of social media as a source for accessing PHCI. Specifically, it examines how individuals rate active vs. passive internet delivery systems (IDS) to gather PHCI. Results of the study indicated that online health forums (active IDS) were the most popular source of PHCI, whereas Facebook and Twitter were most unpopular. On the whole, accessing PHCI via active IDS …

Are We Making A Better World With Information And Communication Technology For Development (Ict4d) Research? Findings From The Field And Theory Building, Sajda Qureshi

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

As Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) continue to penetrate people’s lives the world over, there is a sense that understanding the role of ICTs in the context of development needs to be conceptualized theoretically while making empirical contributions that add to what we know (Avgerou, 2008; Davison, 2012; Sein and Harindranath, 2004; Sahay and Walsham, 1995). Other scholars have pointed to the importance of this research for the field of Information Systems (ISs) in offering broader contributions. Avgerou (2008) suggests that in the era of globalization such research offers contributions in ISs beyond “organizational organizational and national boundaries and support …

Smartphone Mobile Application To Enhance Diagnosis Of Skin Cancer: A Guide For The Rural Practitioner, Shane E. Cook, Louis C. Palmer Md, Franklin D. Shuler Md, Phd

MIIR Faculty Research

Primary care physicians occupy a vital position to impact many devastating conditions, especially those dependent upon early diagnosis, such as skin cancer. Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States and despite improvements in skin cancer therapy, patients with a delay in diagnosis and advanced disease continue to have a grave prognosis. Due to a variety of barriers, advanced stages of skin cancer are more prominent in rural populations. In order to improve early diagnosis four things are paramount: increased patient participation in prevention methods, establishment of screening guidelines, increased diagnostic accuracy of malignant lesions, and easier …

Development Of A Technology-Based Behavioral Vaccine To Prevent Adolescent Depression: A Health System Integration Model, Benjamin W. Van Voorhees, Tracy Gladstone, Stephanie Cordel, Monika Marko-Holguin, William Beardslee, Sachiko Kuwabara, Mark Allan Kaplan, Joshua Fogel, Anne Diehl, Chris Hansen, Carl Bell

Publications and Research

Efforts to prevent depression have become a key health system priority. Currently, there is a high prevalence of depression among adolescents, and treatment has become costly due to the recurrence patterns of the illness, impairment among patients, and the complex factors needed for a treatment to be effective. Primary care may be the optimal location to identify those at risk by offering an Internet-based preventive intervention to reduce costs and improve outcomes. Few practical interventions have been developed. The models for Internet intervention development that have been put forward focus primarily on the Internet component rather than how the program …

Data Governance In Electronic Health Records: A Systematic Review, Rawan Adel Alsharida

Theses and Dissertations

Data governance as a discipline is applicable to encompass in any organization. For this thesis, the focus of our research setting is the data governance in electronic health records (EHR). This thesis presents a literature survey by analyzing 87 articles through over ten years period (from January 2004 – December 2014) related to EHRs. We found our articles written in English language from database MEDLINE that have indexing journals in all fields of medicine and related topics. For several years EHRs have been developed by different providers and researchers, who in turn, put patients’ health in danger. IBM data governance …

Electronic Health Record Optimization For Cardiac Care, Lisa A. Grabenbauer

Theses & Dissertations

Electronic health record (EHR) systems have been studied for over 30 years, and despite the benefits of information technology in other knowledge domains, progress has been slow in healthcare. A growing body of evidence suggests that dissatisfaction with EHR systems was not simply due to resistance to adoption of new technology but also due to real concerns about the adverse impact of EHRs on the delivery of patient care. Solutions for EHR improvement require an approach that combines an understanding of technology adoption with the complexity of the social and technical elements of the US healthcare system. Several studies are …

Implementation Of Electronic Disease Reporting Systems By Local Health Departments, Gulzar H. Shah, Karmen Williams, Bushra G. Shah

Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research

Background: Electronic disease reporting systems (EDRSs) are imperative for local health departments (LHDs) operating in the post-H1N1 and evidence-based public health practice era. Studies regarding functionality and factors responsible for variation in implementation are important but rare.

Purpose: This primary objective for this study was to provide evidence regarding the level to which LHDs have implemented electronic disease reporting systems and factors associated with variation in implementation of electronic disease reporting systems.

Methods: A quantitative analysis was performed of the 2013 Profile of Local Health Departments Survey conducted by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). The …

Fusing Heterogeneous Data For Alzheimer's Disease Classification, P. S. Pillai, Tze-Yun Leong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In multi-view learning, multimodal representations of a real world object or situation are integrated to learn its overall picture. Feature sets from distinct data sources carry different, yet complementary, information which, if analysed together, usually yield better insights and more accurate results. Neuro-degenerative disorders such as dementia are characterized by changes in multiple biomarkers. This work combines the features from neuroimaging and cerebrospinal fluid studies to distinguish Alzheimer's disease patients from healthy subjects. We apply statistical data fusion techniques on 101 subjects from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database. We examine whether fusion of biomarkers helps to improve diagnostic …

Concussion Awareness And Educational Outreach Through A Website And Mobile Application, Daniel J. Brogan

Neuroscience Summer Fellows

In recent years concussions have become a more apparent problem in youth and adolescent sports. 1 in 5 high school students will sustain a concussion during the season. Due to medical and scientific advances, the diagnosis of concussions is becoming much simpler with key markers that are signs for an injury. Returning to play too soon before an athlete is fully recovered increases the likelihood that serious and irreversible neurological deficits can occur. Symptoms for concussions are necessary to track in order for an athlete to properly report their recovery to a physician. Doctors primarily rely on a patient’s report …

Evidence-Based Practice In The New Millenium, Nicholus H. Yee

Clinical Research in Practice: The Journal of Team Hippocrates

A reflection on learning and education in practice.

Tweeting And Treating: How Hospitals Use Twitter To Improve Care, Christian Gomes, Alberto Coustasse

Management Faculty Research

Introduction: Hospitals that have adopted Twitter primarily use it to share organizational news, provide general healthcare information, advertise upcoming community events, and foster networking. The purpose of this study was to explore the benefits that Twitter utilization has had in improving quality of care, access to care, patient satisfaction, and community footprint while assessing the barriers to its implementation.

Methodology: The methodology used in this study was a qualitative study with a semi structure interview combined with a literature review which followed the basic principles of a systematic review.

Results: The utilization of Twitter by hospitals suggest that it leads …

Mobile Health-Care Information For All: A Global Challenge, Geoff Royston, Christine Hagar, Lesley-Anne Long, Dennis Mcmahon, Neil Pakenham-Walsh, Nand Wadhwani

Faculty Publications

Access to health-care information for citizens is a key determinant to reach both the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the emerging post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, but this challenge has repeatedly been relegated to the sidelines.1 What might kickstart progress? An obvious candidate is the mobile phone, which is becoming ubiquitous in low-income and middle-income countries.

Research Proposal: Emrs Changing Patient Medication Errors, Kerry Moore

Applied Research Projects

In 2009 the federal government initiated the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in efforts to improve timely and quality health care. This new initiative promised to provide great incentives to health care providers who took advantage of the program by implementing electronic medical records (EMRs) within their facilities, clinics, and practices. Coupled with tight deadlines and the incentive of reimbursement, the health care world has been witness to an influx of EMRs being developed by vendors and implemented at health care facilities. The rate at which these EMRs have been implemented has been astounding. So fast, the health care …

The Impact Of Ehr Usability Issues On The Perceived Efficiency Of Non-Clinical Hospital-Based Ehr Users, Natasha Ocean

Applied Research Projects

A survey-based study of the impact of the EHR systems usability issues on the perceived efficiency of work among non-clinical users in the hospital settings was performed June 20th to July 24th 2015. There were 160 valid responses. The results were processed in SPSS (IBM statistical application) and I determined the usability dimensions with the greatest impact on efficiency, for all EHRs and for the major EHRs (Meditech, Epic and Cerner). Helpfulness was the most frequent problem for users of all EHRs.

The survey is experimental and cross-sectional. The format was 20 Likert-type questions, along with screening and demographic questions. …

Preventive Maintenance Decision Modeling In Health And Service Systems, Mahboubeh Madadi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the preventive maintenance decision modeling in healthcare and service systems. In the first part of this dissertation, some issues in preventive health decisions for breast cancer are addressed, and in the second part, the required characteristics for preventive maintenance of an unreliable queuing system are derived.

Adherence to cancer screening is the first issue that is addressed in this dissertation. Women’s adherence or compliance with mammography screening remained low in the recent years. In this dissertation, we first develop a design-based logistic regression model to quantify the probability of adherence to screening schedules based on women’s …

Process Change At An All-Volunteer Run Clinic With Pcmh Level 1 Recognition, Erin Flynn

Master's Projects and Capstones

This project directly involves the Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) essential Informatics and Healthcare Technologies, and the CNL role function will be to act as a Team Manager. (AACN, 2013). The global aim of this process improvement is to improve the clinic workflow to increase patient and provider satisfaction in a Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH). The need for this project was discovered during the process of applying for PCMH recognition (of which the clinic has now earned level 1), and successful implementation of this project will meet PCMH guidelines. While applying for PCMH recognition, a clinic workflow document had to be …

Understanding Technology Diffusion And Spatial Accessibility In The Home Healthcare Industry, Mehmet Serdar Kilinç

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Home healthcare is becoming an important alternative to institutionalized care. It not only reduces costs but also increases health outcomes and patient satisfaction. However, the availability and efficiency of home healthcare services need to be improved as the aging population increases in the US. Hence, understanding home healthcare utilization and access are the essential steps to develop strategies ensuring effective and sustainable services to patients.

This research aims to study two main issues in the US home healthcare system: diffusion and long-term impacts of home telehealth and potential spatial accessibility of home healthcare services. Home telehealth is a promising technology …

The Value Of Integrated Information Systems For U.S. General Hospitals, Liuliu Fu

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Each year, huge investments into healthcare information systems (HIS) are being made all over the world. Despite the enormous cost for the hospitals, the overall benefits and costs of the healthcare information systems have not been deeply assessed. In recent years, much previous research has investigated the link between the implementation of Information Systems and the performance of organizations. Although the value of Healthcare Information System or Healthcare Information Technology (HIS/HIT) has been found in many studies, some questions remain unclear. Do HIS/HIT systems influence different hospitals the same way? How to understand and explain the mechanism that HIS/HIT improves …

Robotic Joint Replacement Surgery: Does Technology Improve Outcomes, Chelsea Hill, Reem El-Bash, Leslie Johnson, Alberto Coustasse

Management Faculty Research

Introduction: Osteoarthritis is a common disease that leads patients to seek Total Joint Replacement (TJR). Component misalignments leads to failure of TJR. Computer navigation enhances the precision of component alignment, but the addition of robotic guidance, can boost TJR to a higher level of accuracy.

Methodology: This literature reviewed 29 English language peer reviewed articles from 2002 – 2013 and one website. A conceptual framework was adapted to explain benefits and barriers of adoption of robotic TJR.

Results: A total of ten studies were reviewed with focus on more precise alignment, outcomes, length of stay, and costs. Cost to obtain …

Designing An Effective User Interface For A Mobile Application, Cynthia N. Kim

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to determine the best user interface design practices for an iOS mobile application created for Pre-R, a local start-up company that offers physician house calls and telemedicine services throughout San Luis Obispo. The study included initial background research on best user interface design practices, mapping out and implementing the entire process of designing for mobile applications, conducting usability tests on potential users, and making changes according to the test results. Usability tests allowed for a greater understanding of the effectiveness of Pre-R’s mobile interface design prototype. Results from the usability tests have indicated a …

Librarian Actions To Develop And Sustain Human Research Subject Protection: A Pilot Global Study, Charles J. Greenberg, Sangeeta Narang

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The Institutional Review Board (IRB), also known as an Independent Ethics Committee (IEC), is the most widely adopted process to insure human participant protection. The IRB system is overburdened as human research studies and human participation has dramatically increased without a corresponding increase in reviewing clinicians or ethics staff. Librarian involvement in the IRB process is evident but uneven and unstudied on an international scale. A literature review and international survey attempted to provide professional practice context and librarian reflection on the extent of their involvement, roles, and responsibilities in the IRB or IEC institutional process. Survey results reveal that …

Patient Access To Electronic Health Records: Strengths, Weaknesses And What’S Needed To Move Forward, Alicia V. Zuniga

School of Information Student Research Journal

Electronic health records (EHRs) are desired by both physicians and patients, but the transition to and acceptance of sensitive health information online has been slow. This paper reviews the current literature on EHR adoption and outlines barriers, advantages and explicit steps for moving toward the EHR ubiquity. Potential benefits of EHRs to patients and physicians include reduced costs for patients, hospitals and insurance providers, patient empowerment, less errors in records and better health outcomes, but security and privacy concerns, cost of implementation and poor electronic records management system design have proved barriers to adoption.

Instituting Patient-Self Test Meters In Adults On Warfarin In A Cardiology Practice, Melvyn Grace Manzano Rabanal

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Manuscripts

Background: Warfarin is the oral anticoagulant that is most commonly used to control and prevent thromboembolic disorders. It requires meticulous testing and dosing adjustments to attain therapeutic international normalized ratio (INR) levels. Patient self-testing (PST) is associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality and lower rates of thromboembolism and bleeding. PST meters offers convenience and promotes self-initiative of care.

Purpose: The purpose of the project is to evaluate the effectiveness of INR PST in adult patients diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, deep vein thrombosis, and mechanical heart valve on warfarin therapy in a Cardiology practice compared to traditional …

A Geospatial Analysis Of Norovirus Outbreaks In California, And An Investigation Of The Impact Of Environmental Variables, Alexandra Groen

Master's Projects and Capstones

Previous studies and empirical evidence suggest norovirus outbreaks in California exhibit correlation with environmental variables and exhibit spatial spread patterns. Few studies have been done looking at what causes norovirus seasonality in temperate climates and more research is needed on the regional level. This study aims to find what relationships exist with outbreak occurrence and environmental variables in California, as well as any spatial patterns of spread or clustering of outbreaks. Spatial analysis tools were used to find any relationships between California norovirus outbreak data and environmental variables. The results showed a south to north spread of outbreaks in California …

Diabetes Type 2 Self-Management Education Program: Short Messaging From Patient Portal To Web-Enabled Device, Lynn S. Holcomb

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Only one in eight adults with diabetes reaches target goals for disease management, which can lead to clinical complications, costly both economically and in quality and duration of human life. The standard of care is a quarterly 15-minute face-to-face visit-- arguably inadequate to impart self-care knowledge. The purpose of this EBP project was to deliver a 30-day diabetes self-management education program (DSMEP) utilizing widely accessible web-based technology to facilitate adults with diabetes to reach targeted goals. Using the Chronic Care Model as a framework, the DSMEP design was based on an extensive literature review of the delivery of DSMEP in …

Adapting The Standard Sir Disease Model In Order To Track And Predict The Spreading Of The Ebola Virus Using Twitter Data, Armin Smailhodzic

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A method has been developed to track infectious diseases by using data mining of active Twitter accounts and its efficacy was demonstrated during the West African Ebola outbreak of 2014. Using a meme based n-gram semantic usage model to search the Twitter database for indications of illness, flight and death from the spread of Ebola in Africa, principally from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Memes of interest relate disease to location and severity and are coupled to the density of Tweets and re-Tweets. The meme spreads through the community of social users in a fashion similar to nonlinear wave propagation- …

The Importance Of A Pictorial Medical History In Assisting Medical Diagnosis Of Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities: A Telemedicine Approach, Grace Bonanno

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

When face-to-face physical medical exams are not possible, virtual physical exams, in the form of a pictorial medical exam/history, can be substituted, and telemedicine can be the means to deliver these virtual exams. The goal of this work was to determine if presence in the form of a visual and/or pictorial medical history can be of benefit to clinicians in the diagnosis of medical conditions of individuals with developmental disabilities (DDs) and/or intellectual disabilities (IDs), in particular those who cannot, because of their cognitive and/or physical disabilities, verbally relate their illness to a clinician. Virtual exams can also be useful …

An Information Privacy Examination Of The Practices Of Pharmaceutical Companies Regarding Use Of Information Collected Through Their Websites, Shonda Dellena Brown

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Consumers have begun to take a more proactive approach to their healthcare by accessing pharmaceutical companies Websites to obtain health and drug information, support groups, rebates, coupons, as well as free drug trials. In exchange for these benefits, companies require consumers to voluntarily disclose information. However, research has shown that consumers continue to be concerned about how their information is managed, used, and distributed by companies, especially if accessed via the Web. To date, there has been limited empirical research to examine the actual online practices of companies when it comes to privacy, especially those of pharmaceutical companies. Using Delphi …

Emr Training Tactics: A Case Study Of Clinical Staff Training Experiences, Needs And Perceptions, Victoria Leaann Miller

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Electronic medical record systems have become essential for giving patient care at health care institutions. The purpose of this study was to explore the training provided to staff at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Northwest Family Medical Center in an effort to identify participant training experiences, needs, and perceptions. This study included qualitative, case study research. There were fourteen participants in the study. A focus group interview was conducted with eight administrative and training participants. Interviews and observations were conducted with six staff members.

The literature review of this study discussed educational theories including andragogy and training techniques. …

Improving Antibiotic Resistant Infection Transmission Situational Awareness In Enclosed Facilities With A Novel Interface Design For Tactical Biosurveillance, Ann L. Fruhling, Devika Ramachandran

Interdisciplinary Informatics Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

The implementation of the Electronic Health Record to substantially improve the practice of medicine has not fully reached its projected potential partly due to many barriers to its adoption. There is growing evidence that one of the reasons for the delay in the adoption of EHR has been due to the negative impact of current EHRs on the clinician-patient interaction, clinician workflow and communications. This research studies the usability of the Electronic Health Record for clinicians involved in cardiac care by evaluating various clinician-patient interaction workflows. The aim of the study is to identify inefficiencies by examining the similarities and …