(Press-News.org) To speed development and adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) for pediatrics, a group of experts from industry, academia and government convened by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has focused its attention on three key audiences—records-system vendors and developers, small-group pediatric medical practices and children's hospitals.
In a paper* in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, the panel of medical, human factors engineering and software-usability experts detail how specific recommendations from a recent guide to pediatric EHRs could be translated into practice.
In July 2012, NIST published A Human Factors Guide to Enhance EHR Usability of Critical User Interactions when Supporting Pediatric Patient Care (NISTIR 7865) to help improve the design of electronic health records for pediatric patients so that the design focus is on the users—the doctors, nurses and other clinicians who treat children.
The Joint Commission is a not-for-profit organization that accredits and certifies more than 20,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States and is the nation's oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care. The peer-reviewed The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety serves as a forum for practical approaches to improving quality and safety in health care.
"In this article we provide tailored recommendations to the three stakeholder groups we thought could most help in accelerating adoption of pediatric electronic health records," said Lana Lowry, one of the article's authors. "This was a good opportunity to reach a large and important health care audience."
The article offers additional details on the methods used to develop the original guidance, and on how to translate its methodologies to similar efforts in other areas where electronic health records are being designed and implemented.
Pediatric care differs substantially from adult care because of differences in developmental status, size, and the measurements used to convey this type of information, as well as the patient's ability to communicate. These differences make the selection and arrangement of information displays, definition of "normal" ranges, and thresholds for alerts more challenging than for EHR use with adult populations.
The guide's recommendations take into account these differences between adult and pediatric patients, recommending a "one-click" access to growth charts, and supporting dose information out to more decimal points—critical for low-weight patients for whom slight differences in dosing can have significant impacts.
The guidance recommends EHR system users—from the small practice to the large hospital—be active participants working with their vendors to design displays and other aspects of systems to their own needs. For example, small practices could create committees made up of a few staff members from different disciplines (nurses, doctors, and IT specialists) to determine how to customize their EHRs for their own needs. Large hospitals could request unit-specific banners to avoid any confusion between adult and pediatric patients who may have the same names.
INFORMATION:
A Human Factors Guide to Enhance EHR Usability of Critical User Interactions when Supporting Pediatric Patient Care (NISTIR 7865) is available at http://www.nist.gov/manuscript-publication-search.cfm?pub_id=911520.
To receive a copy of the article, please contact Lana Lowry at lana.lowry@nist.gov.
* E.S. Patterson, J. Zhang, P. Abbott, M.C. Gibbons, S.V. Lowry, M.T. Quinn, M. Ramaiah and D. Brick. Enhancing electronic health record usability in pediatric patient care: A scenario-based approach. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. Vol. 39, no. 3. (Mar 2013): 129-135.
END
BUFFALO, N.Y. – A genetic mutation that alters the kinetics of an ion channel in red blood cells has been identified as the cause behind a hereditary anemia, according to a paper (http://bit.ly/13LgCzc) published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by University at Buffalo scientists and colleagues.
The research team was led by Frederick Sachs, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the UB Department of Physiology and Biophysics, who discovered in the 1980s that some ion channels are mechanosensitive, that is, they convert mechanical stress ...
Tiny biomolecular chambers called nanopores that can be selectively heated may help doctors diagnose disease more effectively if recent research by a team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Wheaton College, and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) proves effective. Though the findings* may be years away from application in the clinic, they may one day improve doctors' ability to search the bloodstream quickly for indicators of disease—a longstanding goal of medical research.
The team has pioneered work on the use of nanopores—tiny chambers ...
Although biologists think that "new media" such as blogs and online social networks have an important influence on public opinion and political decisions, they aren't much inclined to use them themselves to stay informed about developments in science. Rather, they prefer traditional outlets such as newspapers and television. That seems, at least, to be the implication of a study published in the April issue of BioScience.
The study, by Joachim Allgaier of the Jülich Research Center in Germany and four coauthors, examined the opinions of 257 neuroscientists working in ...
HOUSTON – (March 8, 2013) – A more rapid laboratory test for pregnant women to detect potentially deadly Group B strep (GBS) has been successful at identifying GBS colonization in six and a half hours, according to the results of a study from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).
The more rapid test could be helpful for the 13 percent of patients who experience pre-term labor before they are screened for GBS, which usually occurs between 35 and 37 weeks of gestation. The current standard test takes 48 hours. Antibiotics can be administered ...
Cyclone 19P in the Southern Pacific Ocean was renamed Sandra today, March 8, as NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared data on the storm that indicated it would continue to strengthen. Residents of New Caledonia should prepare for impacts from Sandra early next week.
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of Cyclone Sandra's cloud top temperatures on March 8 at 1717 UTC (12:17 p.m. EST). Strong thunderstorms around Sandra's center and in a band east of the center appeared as cold as -63 Fahrenheit ...
For more than 20 years, researchers have been using atomic force microscopy (AFM) to measure and characterize materials at the nanometer scale. However AFM-based measurements of chemistry and chemical properties of materials were generally not possible, until now.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign report that they have measured the chemical properties of polymer nanostructures as small as 15 nm, using a novel technique called atomic force microscope infrared spectroscopy (AFM-IR). The article, "Atomic force microscope infrared spectroscopy ...
New technologies that exploit quantum behavior for computing and other applications are closer than ever to being realized due to recent advances, according to a review article published this week in the journal Science.
A silicon chip levitates individual atoms used in quantum information processing. Photo: Curt Suplee and Emily Edwards, Joint Quantum Institute and University of Maryland. Credit: Science.
These advances could enable the creation of immensely powerful computers as well as other applications, such as highly sensitive ...
Custody and visitation rights for grandparents in Pennsylvania
Article provided by Palange & Endres, P.C.
Visit us at http://www.pandelaw.com
The bond between grandparents and grandchildren is important and special. In most cases, the survival of this relationship depends on the consent of the children's parents.
Sometimes -- perhaps because of estrangement, illness or divorce -- parents may limit grandparents' ability to spend time with their children. When this happens, grandparents may be able to go to court and seek protection of their grandparents' rights, ...
Changes to taxes for small businesses in 2013
Article provided by Eno, Martin & Donahue, L.L.P.
Visit us at http://www.ebmdattorneys.com
As tax day approaches, individuals and businesses need to be sure that they are familiar with all of the changes that have been made to tax laws. Each year, the tax code undergoes multiple changes, and this year is no exception. No one wants to go through an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audit or collection action. Failing to keep up with these changes could subject individuals and businesses to potential tax penalties if ...
Divorce rate rising for US Baby Boomers
Article provided by Law Office of H. William Edgar
Visit us at http://www.edgarfamilylaw.com
As the average life expectancy in the United States has risen and the characteristics of a successful and happy marriage have changed, the number of people who choose to divorce later in life has also increased. Interestingly, while the number of older Americans getting divorce has risen, the number of younger couples divorcing in the US has remained relatively the same over the past two decades.
According to a study conducted by ...
