JAMIA: Evaluating clinical information systems, patients who use PHRs, how clinicians use EHRs

The current edition of JAMIA, today's top-ranked journal in biomedical and health informatics, features new scientific research—in print and online—on some of healthcare's most hotly discussed HIT-related topics, written by prominent experts working in health and biomedicine:

• "The case for randomized controlled trials to assess the impact of clinical information systems" Joseph L. Y. Liu of The University of Dundee and The University of Edinburgh, UK; and Jeremy C. Wyatt of University of Warwick and The University of Dundee, UK, provide a perspective on the critical role of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) in the assessment of clinical information systems. The authors make a compelling case that clinical information systems can be very influential in determining clinical outcomes; therefore, they should be subject to the same rigorous evaluation standards as other types of clinical interventions, such as medications and procedures.

• "The military health system's personal health record pilot with Microsoft HealthVault and Google Health" Lead author Nhan V. Do of Walter Reed Army Medical Center and co-authors describe the encouraging results of a pilot study on the usage of personal health records (PHRs) and users' perceptions. The results show that concerns about privacy are not an impediment for use, and that patients perceive benefits in using PHRs that are not tied to a particular healthcare system.
• "Use of electronic clinical documentation: time spent and team interactions" Lead author George Hripcsak of Columbia University Medical Center and co-authors report on whether notes from an electronic health records are utilized—and how—by members of clinical teams. Clinicians spent an average of 54 min/day authoring and 21 min/day viewing notes at one academic medical center, yet research indicates that a significant number of these notes were never viewed. The authors speculate that oral communication at turn of shifts may obviate the role of certain written notes for immediate care.

Editor-in-Chief Lucila Ohno-Machado says, "We have broadened the scope of the journal to encompass all areas of biomedical and health informatics and look forward to receiving submissions which represent research, applications, reviews, and perspectives in a variety of topics." Associate Editor Harold Lehmann adds that, "Our collective contributions in biomedical and health informatics can have a strong impact on health care in the U.S. and abroad."

Source: American Medical Informatics Association