Expanding the boundaries of clinical informatics for interdisciplinary systems research

Abstract

Health-care organizations and the information they exchange are increasingly complex and difficult to understand necessitating fresh methodological approaches on the part of clinical informatics researchers. Looking at the interplay between health-care information technology (HIT), clinical workflow, and the surrounding organization requires some notion of a system and an interdisciplinary orientation toward research. The paper offers practical advice grounded in the systems approach to researchers who wish to view HIT holistically and part of an integrated system. Examples from literature describe the importance of expanding system boundaries, looking for relationships within those boundaries, simplifying complexity, and accounting for social behavior.