The following appeared a little while ago:
Federal study shows IT improves outcomes
Posted on Aug 15, 2013
By Diana Manos, Senior Editor
A new report issued Thursday by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has found that certain health IT products, including those that provide decision support, clinical workflow support and care coordination can lead to better healthcare outcomes.
"Findings and Lessons from the Improving Quality Through Clinician Use of Health IT Grant Initiative" documents the findings of more than 20 research projects that investigated how health IT applications can assist providers in providing evidence-based care. Multiple studies showed positive impacts on process and intermediate outcomes.
The report highlights key findings and lessons from the experiences of 24 projects awarded in 2007 under AHRQ. According to AHRQ officials, the initiative was designed to investigate approaches for using health IT to support clinicians in making patient care decisions and coordinating care with a focus on effectively incorporating evidence-based information at the point of care. It's part of AHRQ’s Ambulatory Safety and Quality program, which was designed to improve the safety and quality of ambulatory healthcare in the U.S.
The report summarizes the extent to which the federal projects addressed the areas of interest of the IQHIT initiative and identifies practical insights regarding the use of health IT to improve clinical decision-making and care coordination in the ambulatory setting, according to AHRQ officials.
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There is also coverage here:
AHRQ Projects Show Positive Impact of HIT on Care Quality
August 15, 2013
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has released a report summarizing the results of the grant initiative, Improving Quality Through Clinician Use of Health IT.
The grant initiative is one of five initiatives under AHRQ's Ambulatory Safety and Quality program, which focuses on the role of health IT in ambulatory healthcare quality and patient safety. The report, "Findings and Lessons From the Improving Quality Through Clinician Use of Health IT Grant Initiative," describes the 24 projects that examined one of four main areas:
1. Providing patient-specific information, clinical knowledge and decision support
2. Supporting clinical workflow
3. Coordinating care
4. Understanding the impact on outcomes
2. Supporting clinical workflow
3. Coordinating care
4. Understanding the impact on outcomes
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The conclusions of these studies say it all.
Conclusion.
The IQHIT projects demonstrated significant progress toward addressing AHRQ goals of advancing understanding of how clinicians can use health IT to improve the quality of health care. They developed and tested a range of approaches for enhancing CDS, providing clinical information at the point of care, and improving care coordination, while also studying how to integrate health IT systems into clinical workflows. Several projects showed a positive impact on process outcomes related to the delivery of evidence-based preventive and chronic care, or the use of health IT by clinicians. In addition, several projects showed a positive impact on intermediate outcomes such as chronic disease control, clinician perceptions of health IT usefulness, and clinician satisfaction. Other projects demonstrated improvements in health outcomes such as adverse drug events and functional status. Their findings and insights can provide the foundation for advances in several of the priority areas in the National Quality Strategy, especially making care safer, coordinating care, and promoting the use of effective care (HHS, 2012), as the IQHIT researchers showed how clinician use of health IT can improve outcomes in all of these areas. The IQHIT projects continue to build the evidence base for clinician use of health IT as they are consistent with the findings of a recent systematic review of earlier research on the effects of clinician use of CDS systems (Bright et al., 2012, Lobach et al., 2012).
The findings and lessons from the IQHIT initiative can inform researchers and implementers interested in using health IT to help clinicians improve the quality of health care. The continued rapid pace of technological change and the continued interest in the use of health IT to improve health and health care delivery make the results of this body of research timely and relevant to ongoing efforts to expand the use of health IT to improve the quality of health care
The full report is here:
Well worth a download and read.
David.
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