Health Professional Involvement in Health Information Technology Development: What Can Your Do to Improve Them?

Abstract

Information technology (IT) is increasingly a part of everyday life for health professionals. Technology such as decision support systems (DSS) and electronic health records (EHR) have great potential in improving practice efficiency and standard, and improve patient outcomes; however, like most health IT, available programs are often lacking in usability and efficiency. To improve the quality of IT available, health professionals need to be actively involved in the developmental process, from early planning stages to final testing and feedback. Aims: To gain insight into the role of IT in the health sector and pharmacy. To explore what the general requirements are of complex DSS used by health professionals. To discuss if and how these requirements change depending on practice setting. To gain insight into what skills are needed to be involved in different stages of health IT development. Learning objectives: By the end of the session participants should be able to: Describe the different types of IT used in the health sector and pharmacy. Describe the role of EHR, computer physician order entry systems dispensing systems, DSS and how these systems are related. Involved in the development of a usable health IT. Description of Workshop Activities: This workshop is aimed at health practitioners, researchers, policy makers, and other parties interested in health IT. During this workshop participants will be shown a short presentation describing a) different types of health IT, and b) the development process of a prototype DSS to illustrate how health professionals can be involved in health IT development. This will be followed by small group discussions on the requirements for DSS in clinical practice and various environments, a demonstration of a DSS developed by the authors, and feedback. Additional information (if required): N/A