Faculty Bibliography

Background: The potential of the electronic health record (EHR) and clinical decision support (CDS) to improve the practice of medicine have been significantly tempered by poor design and the resulting burden they place on health care providers. CDS is rarely tested in the real clinical environment. As a result many tools are hard to use, placing strain on providers and resulting in low adoption rates. This is the first study to evaluate CDS usability and the provider-computer-patient interaction in the real clinical environment. The objective of this study was to further understand barriers and facilitators of meaningful CDS usage within a real clinical context. Methods: This qualitative observational study was conducted with three primary care providers during a total of six patient care sessions. In patients with the chief complaint of sore throat the Centor Score was used to stratify the risk of group A strep pharyngitis. In patients with a chief complaint of cough or upper respiratory infection the Heckerling Rule was used to stratify the risk of pneumonia. During usability testing all human-computer interactions, including audio and continuous screen capture, were recorded using Camtasia software. Participants' comments and interactions with the tool during patient care sessions and participant comments during a post-session brief interview were placed into coding categories and analyzed for generalizable themes. Results: In the 6 encounters observed, primary care providers toggled between addressing either the computer or the patient during the visit. Minimal time was spent listening to the patient without engaging the EHR. Participants almost always used the CDS tool with the patient, asking questions to populate the calculator and discussing the results of the risk assessment; they reported the ability to do this as the major benefit of the tool. All primary care providers were interrupted during their use of the CDS tool by the need to refer to other sections of the chart. In half of the visits, patient's clinical symptoms challenged the applicability of the clinical prediction rule to calculate the risk of bacterial infection. Primary care providers rarely used the incorporated incentives for CDS usage, including progress notes and patient instructions/documentation. Conclusions: Live usability testing of these CDS tools generated insights about their role in the patient-provider interaction. CDS may contribute to the interaction by being simultaneously viewed by provider and patient. CDS can improve usability and lessen the strain it places on providers by being short, flexible and customizable to unique provider workflow. A useful component of CDS is being as widely applicable as possible and ensuring that its functions represent the fastest way to perform a particular task

OBJECTIVES: Low provider adoption continues to be a significant barrier to realizing the potential of clinical decision support. "Think Aloud" and "Near Live" usability testing were conducted on two clinical decision support tools. Each was composed of an alert, a clinical prediction rule which estimated risk of either group A Streptococcus pharyngitis or pneumonia and an automatic order set based on risk. The objective of this study was to further understanding of the facilitators of usability and to evaluate the types of additional information gained from proceeding to "Near Live" testing after completing "Think Aloud". METHODS: This was a qualitative observational study conducted at a large academic health care system with 12 primary care providers. During "Think Aloud" testing, participants were provided with written clinical scenarios and asked to verbalize their thought process while interacting with the tool. During "Near Live" testing participants interacted with a mock patient. Morae usability software was used to record full screen capture and audio during every session. Participant comments were placed into coding categories and analyzed for generalizable themes. Themes were compared across usability methods. RESULTS: "Think Aloud" and "Near Live" usability testing generated similar themes under the coding categories visibility, workflow, content, understand-ability and navigation. However, they generated significantly different themes under the coding categories usability, practical usefulness and medical usefulness. During both types of testing participants found the tool easier to use when important text was distinct in its appearance, alerts were passive and appropriately timed, content was up to date, language was clear and simple, and each component of the tool included obvious indicators of next steps. Participant comments reflected higher expectations for usability and usefulness during "Near Live" testing. For example, visit aids, such as automatically generated order sets, were felt to be less useful during "Near-Live" testing because they would not be all inclusive for the visit. CONCLUSIONS: These complementary types of usability testing generated unique and generalizable insights. Feedback during "Think Aloud" testing primarily helped to improve the tools' ease of use. The additional feedback from "Near Live" testing, which mimics a real clinical encounter, was helpful for eliciting key barriers and facilitators to provider workflow and adoption.

Problem-oriented charting is form of medical documentation that organizes patient data by a diagnosis or problem. In this review, we discuss the history and current use of problem-oriented charting by critically evaluating the literature on the topic. We provide insights with regard to our own institutional use of problem-oriented charting and potential opportunities for research.

BACKGROUND: Clinical prediction rules (CPRs) represent a method of determining individual patient risk to help providers make more accurate decisions at the point of care. Well-validated CPRs are underutilized but may decrease antibiotic overuse for acute respiratory infections. The integrated clinical prediction rules (iCPR) study builds on a previous single clinic study to integrate two CPRs into the electronic health record and assess their impact on practice. This article discusses study design and implementation of a multicenter cluster randomized control trial of the iCPR clinical decision support system, including the tool adaptation, usability testing, staff training, and implementation study to disseminate iCPR at multiple clinical sites across two health care systems. METHODS: The iCPR tool is based on two well-validated CPRs, one for strep pharyngitis and one for pneumonia. The iCPR tool uses the reason for visit to trigger a risk calculator. Provider completion of the risk calculator provides a risk score, which is linked to an order set. Order sets guide evidence-based care and include progress note documentation, tests, prescription medications, and patient instructions. The iCPR tool was refined based on interviews with providers, medical assistants, and clinic managers, and two rounds of usability testing. "Near live" usability testing with simulated patients was used to ensure that iCPR fit into providers' clinical workflows. Thirty-three Family Medicine and General Internal Medicine primary care clinics were recruited at two institutions. Clinics were randomized to academic detailing about strep pharyngitis and pneumonia diagnosis and treatment (control) or academic detailing plus use of the iCPR tool (intervention). The primary outcome is the difference in antibiotic prescribing rates between the intervention and control groups with secondary outcomes of difference in rapid strep and chest x-ray ordering. Use of the components of the iCPR will also be assessed. DISCUSSION: The iCPR study uses a strong user-centered design and builds on the previous initial study, to assess whether CPRs integrated in the electronic health record can change provider behavior and improve evidence-based care in a broad range of primary care clinics. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov ( NCT02534987 ).

Lifestyle behavior changes can prevent progression of prediabetes to diabetes but providers often are not able to effectively counsel about preventive lifestyle changes. We developed and pilot tested the Avoiding Diabetes Thru Action Plan Targeting (ADAPT) program to enhance primary care providers' counseling about behavior change for patients with prediabetes. Primary care providers in two urban academic practices and their patients with prediabetes were recruited to participate in the ADAPT study, an unblinded randomized pragmatic trial to test the effectiveness of the ADAPT program, including a streamlined electronic medical record-based goal setting tool. Providers were randomized to intervention or control arms; eligible patients whose providers were in the intervention arm received the ADAPT program. Physical activity (the primary outcome) was measured using pedometers, and data were gathered about patients' diet, weight and glycemic control. A total of 54 patients were randomized and analyzed as part of the 6-month ADAPT study (2010-2012, New York, NY). Those in the intervention group showed an increase total daily steps compared to those in the control group (+ 1418 vs - 598, p = 0.007) at 6 months. There was also a trend towards weight loss in the intervention compared to the control group (- 1.0 lbs. vs. 3.0 lbs., p = 0.11), although no change in glycemic control. The ADAPT study is among the first to use standard electronic medical record tools to embed goal setting into realistic primary care workflows and to demonstrate a significant improvement in prediabetes patients' physical activity.

BACKGROUND: Health information is increasingly being digitally stored and exchanged. The public is regularly collecting and storing health-related data on their own electronic devices and in the cloud. Diabetes prevention is an increasingly important preventive health measure, and diet and exercise are key components of this. Patients are turning to online programs to help them lose weight. Despite primary care physicians being important in patients' weight loss success, there is no exchange of information between the primary care provider (PCP) and these online weight loss programs. There is an emerging opportunity to integrate this data directly into the electronic health record (EHR), but little is known about what information to share or how to share it most effectively. This study aims to characterize the preferences of providers concerning the integration of externally generated lifestyle modification data into a primary care EHR workflow. METHODS: We performed a qualitative study using two rounds of semi-structured interviews with primary care providers. We used an iterative design process involving primary care providers, health information technology software developers and health services researchers to develop the interface. RESULTS: Using grounded-theory thematic analysis 4 themes emerged from the interviews: 1) barriers to establishing healthy lifestyles, 2) features of a lifestyle modification program, 3) reporting of outcomes to the primary care provider, and 4) integration with primary care. These themes guided the rapid-cycle agile design process of an interface of data from an online diabetes prevention program into the primary care EHR workflow. CONCLUSIONS: The integration of external health-related data into the EHR must be embedded into the provider workflow in order to be useful to the provider and beneficial for the patient. Accomplishing this requires evaluation of that clinical workflow during software design. The development of this novel interface used rapid cycle iterative design, early involvement by providers, and usability testing methodology. This provides a framework for how to integrate external data into provider workflow in efficient and effective ways. There is now the potential to realize the importance of having this data available in the clinical setting for patient engagement and health outcomes.

BACKGROUND:Health behavior and weight management interventions for cancer survivors have the potential to prevent future cancer recurrence and improve long-term health; however, their translation can be limited if the intervention is complex and involves high participant burden. Mobile health (mHealth) offers a delivery modality to integrate interventions into daily life routines. OBJECTIVE:The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of a one-group trial with a pre-post evaluation design on engagement (use and acceptability), physiological (weight), behavioral (diet and physical activity), and other secondary outcomes. METHODS:The 10-week intervention consisted of mHealth components (self-monitoring of selected diet behaviors via daily text messages, wireless devices to automatically track weight and steps) and 4 motivational interviewing-based technology-assisted phone sessions with a nonprofessionally trained counselor. Participants were overweight breast cancer survivors who had completed treatment and owned a smartphone. Weight was measured objectively; diet and physical activity were measured with brief self-reported questionnaires. RESULTS:Ten women participated; they had a mean age of 59 years (SD 6), 50% belonged to a racial or ethnic minority group, 50% had some college or less, and 40% reported using Medicaid health insurance. Engagement was high: out of 70 days in total, the mean number of days recording steps via the wristband pedometer was 64 (SD 7), recording a weight via the scale was 45 (SD 24), and responding to text messages was 60 (SD 13); 100% of participants completed all 4 calls with the counselor. Most (90%) were very likely to participate again and recommend the program to others. Mean weight in pounds decreased (182.5 to 179.1, mean change -3.38 [SD 7.67]), fruit and vegetable daily servings increased (2.89 to 4.42, mean change 1.53 [SD 2.82]), and self-reported moderate physical activity increased in metabolic equivalent of task (MET) minutes per week (2791 to 3336, mean change 545 [SD 1694]). CONCLUSIONS:Findings support the conduct of a fully powered trial to evaluate the efficacy of mHealth as a feasible intervention modality for breast cancer survivors. Future research should employ accelerometer-based physical activity assessment and consider development of an all-in-one app to integrate devices, messaging, and educational content and other mHealth approaches to support behavioral counselors conducting weight management interventions. TRIAL REGISTRATION/BACKGROUND:ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02387671; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02387671 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6hGEuttbZ).