How Can Physician's Knowledge Be Activated to Provide Better Healthcare? Explaining Electronic Health Record Adaptation by Physicians
ABSTRACT: Despite the rising costs of healthcare and falling quality of care, the integration of EHR (Electronic Health Records) in supporting collaboration to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare remains a challenge. It appears that the physicians are at the center of this bottleneck. The literature suggests that the reasons for the limited use relate to policy, financial and usability considerations, but it does not provide an understanding of reasons for physicians' limited interaction and adaptation of EHR. Following an analysis of qualitative data, collected in a case study at a hospital using interviews, this research shows how a collaborative technology architecture can enable the physicians to better interact with their partners using the E.H.R technology for the purpose of improving healthcare provision.
Keywords: Collaboration, Electronic Medical Records, Information technology, Hospitals, Medical diagnostic imaging, Adaptation models
Mobile Access for Patient Centered Care: The Challenges of Activating Knowledge through Health Information Technology
ABSTRACT: With the growing use of mobile technology to access health information, patients are being empowered in their healthcare choices. While specific mobile applications are becoming available for patients to manage their own care, most treatment processes support healthcare professionals and offer little support for patient centered care. In order to address this problem, federal regulations require providers to become meaningful users of Health Information Technology (HIT) in an effort to encourage patient centered care through the assessment of health outcomes. This paper contends that addressing meaningful use practices for patient centered care involves the activation of knowledge, which means bringing knowledge into action. A survey of 73 health care providers sought to discover how their knowledge activation affects patient centered care. The results suggest that current HIT usage by providers has limited knowledge activation. The contribution of this research is in that it identifies areas that would to bring about improvements in patient centered care and a model that shows how mobile access to patient records could potentially streamline the patient care process.
Keywords: Mobile communication, Electronic Medical Records, Information technology, Hospitals, Medical diagnostic imaging, Encoding
