Importance Research in obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN) increasingly relies on "big data" and observational study designs. There is a gap in practitioner-relevant guides to interpret and critique such research. Objective This guide is an introduction to interpreting research using observational data and provides explanations and context for related terminology. In addition, it serves as a g...

OBJECTIVES To provide an editorial introduction to the 2015 IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics. METHODS We provide a brief overview of the 2015 special topic "Patient-Centered Care Coordination", discuss the addition of two new sections to the Yearbook, Natural Language Processing and Public Health & Epidemiology Informatics, and present our editorial plans for the upcoming celebration of t...

Immunization information systems (IIS) are population-based and confidential computerized systems maintained by public health agencies containing individual data on immunizations from participating health care providers. IIS hold comprehensive vaccination histories given across providers and over time. An important aspect to IIS is the clinical decision support for immunizations (CDSi), consist...

PROBLEM Although electronic communication of clinical data between various actors in the healthcare domain seems crucial for a cost-effective patient treatment, it is mostly restricted to paper based documents. In order to meet the growing need for improved data communication, it is necessary to overcome the barriers of software heterogeneity and lack of standards, especially in cross-instituti...

Clinical decision support (CDS) within the electronic health record represents a promising mechanism to provide important genomic findings within clinical workflows. To better understand the current and possible future costs of genomic CDS, we leveraged our local CDS experience to assemble a simple model with inputs such as initial cost and numbers of patients, rules, and institutions. Our mode...

Sepsis represents a unique clinical dilemma with regard to antimicrobial stewardship. The standard approach to suspected sepsis in the emergency department centers on fluid resuscitation and timely broad-spectrum antimicrobials. The lack of gold standard diagnostics and evolving definitions for sepsis introduce a significant degree of diagnostic uncertainty that may raise the potential for inap...

Electronic health records (EHRs) and clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) have the potential to enhance antimicrobial stewardship. Numerous EHRs and CDSSs are available and have the potential to enable all clinicians and antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) to more efficiently review pharmacy, microbiology, and clinical data. Literature evaluating the impact of EHRs and CDSSs on patie...

Supporting adolescent patient engagement in care is an important yet underexplored topic in consumer health informatics. Personal Health Records (PHRs) show potential, but designing PHR systems to accommodate both emerging adults and their parents is challenging. We conducted a mixed-methods study with teenage adolescent patients (ages 13-17) with cancer and blood disorders, and their parents, ...

This article describes a novel double-degree Master’s program in Nursing and Health Informatics. The program was designed to prepare nurses with graduate level competencies in both nursing and health informatics. Such competencies are essential for professionals working in the rapidly expanding fields of nursing and health informatics. There is an immediate and longer-term need for clinical pro...

BACKGROUND The use of intravenous thrombolysis for stroke is limited by contraindications that may be difficult to identify promptly and accurately. Evidence supports the use of information technology-based clinical decision support (CDS) tools to achieve improvements in care delivery. The objective of this pilot study was to investigate the efficacy of a CDS tool to screen health records for c...