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Electronic health records (EHR) are becoming more common because of the federal EHR incentive programme, which is also promoting electronic health information exchange (HIE). To determine whether consumers' attitudes toward EHR and HIE are associated with experience with doctors using EHR, a nationwide random-digit-dial survey was conducted in December 2011. Of 1603 eligible people contacted, 1000 (63%) participated. Most believed EHR and HIE would improve healthcare quality (66% and 79% [...]

Significant limitations exist in the timely and complete identification of primary and recurrent cancers for clinical and epidemiologic research. A SAS-based coding, extraction, and nomenclature tool (SCENT) was developed to address this problem.

Healthcare organizations continue to adopt information technologies with clinical decision support (CDS) to prevent potential medication-related adverse drug events. End-users who are unfamiliar with certain high-risk patient populations are at an increased risk of unknowingly causing medication errors. The following case describes a heart transplant recipient exposed to supra-therapeutic concentrations of tacrolimus during co-administration of ritonavir as a result of vendor supplied CDS tools that omitted an interaction alert. After [...]

The use of the internet as a source of health information and link to healthcare services has raised concerns about the ability of consumers, especially vulnerable populations such as older adults, to access these applications. This study examined the influence of training on the ability of adults (aged 45+ years) to use the Medicare.gov website to solve problems related to health management. The influence of computer experience and cognitive abilities [...]

Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC) mapping of laboratory data is often a question of the effort of mapping compared with the benefits of the structure achieved. The new LOINC mapping assistant RELMA (version 2011) has the potential to reduce the effort required for semi-automated mapping. We examined quality, time effort, and sustainability of such mapping.

This paper presents a coreference resolution system for clinical narratives. Coreference resolution aims at clustering all mentions in a single document to coherent entities.

At the 2011 American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) Winter Symposium we studied the overlap between health IT and economics and what leading healthcare delivery organizations are achieving today using IT that might offer paths for the nation to follow for using health IT in healthcare reform. We recognized that health IT by itself can improve health value, but its main contribution to health value may be that it can [...]

The literature describes teenagers as active users of social media, who seem to care about privacy, but who also reveal a considerable amount of personal information. There have been no studies of how they manage personal health information on social media.

Secondary use of clinical text is impeded by a lack of highly effective, low-cost de-identification methods. Both, manual and automated methods for removing protected health information, are known to leave behind residual identifiers. The authors propose a novel approach for addressing the residual identifier problem based on the theory of Hiding In Plain Sight (HIPS).

The widespread adoption of commercial electronic health records (EHRs) presents a significant challenge to the field of informatics. In their current form, EHRs function as a walled garden and prevent the integration of outside tools and services. This impedes the widespread adoption and diffusion of research interventions into the clinic. In most institutions, EHRs are supported by clinical operations staff who are largely separate from their informatics counterparts. This relationship [...]