Appl Clin Inform 2016; 07(02): 604-623
DOI: 10.4338/ACI-2015-12-RA-0182
Research Article
Schattauer GmbH

Feasibility of population health analytics and data visualization for decision support in the infectious diseases domain

A pilot study
Don Roosan
1   Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah, 421 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA
,
Guilherme Del Fiol
1   Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah, 421 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA
2   IDEAS Center for Innovation, VA Salt Lake City Health System, 500 Foothill Drive, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA
,
Jorie Butler
2   IDEAS Center for Innovation, VA Salt Lake City Health System, 500 Foothill Drive, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA
,
Yarden Livnat
3   Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, Department of Computer Sciences, University of Utah, 72 S Central Campus Dr, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
,
Jeanmarie Mayer
2   IDEAS Center for Innovation, VA Salt Lake City Health System, 500 Foothill Drive, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA
,
Matthew Samore
1   Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah, 421 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA
2   IDEAS Center for Innovation, VA Salt Lake City Health System, 500 Foothill Drive, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA
,
Makoto Jones
2   IDEAS Center for Innovation, VA Salt Lake City Health System, 500 Foothill Drive, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA
,
Charlene Weir
1   Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah, 421 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA
2   IDEAS Center for Innovation, VA Salt Lake City Health System, 500 Foothill Drive, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA
› Institutsangaben
This project was supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (grant R36HS023349) and Department of Veterans Affairs Research and Development (grant CRE 12–230). Dr. Islam was supported by National Library of Medicine training grant (T15-LM07124) and partially supported by Houston Veterans Affairs Health Services Research & Development Center for Innovations in Quality and Effectiveness and Safety (IQuESt).
Weitere Informationen

Publikationsverlauf

received: 31. Dezember 2015

accepted: 01. Mai 2016

Publikationsdatum:
16. Dezember 2017 (online)

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Summary

Objective

Big data or population-based information has the potential to reduce uncertainty in medicine by informing clinicians about individual patient care. The objectives of this study were: 1) to explore the feasibility of extracting and displaying population-based information from an actual clinical population’s database records, 2) to explore specific design features for improving population display, 3) to explore perceptions of population information displays, and 4) to explore the impact of population information display on cognitive outcomes.

Methods

We used the Veteran’s Affairs (VA) database to identify similar complex patients based on a similar complex patient case. Study outcomes measures were 1) preferences for population information display 2) time looking at the population display, 3) time to read the chart, and 4) appropriateness of plans with pre-and post-presentation of population data. Finally, we redesigned the population information display based on our findings from this study.

Results

The qualitative data analysis for preferences of population information display resulted in four themes: 1) trusting the big/population data can be an issue, 2) embedded analytics is necessary to explore patient similarities, 3) need for tools to control the view (overview, zoom and filter), and 4) different presentations of the population display can be beneficial to improve the display. We found that appropriateness of plans was at 60% for both groups (t9=-1.9; p=0.08), and overall time looking at the population information display was 2.3 minutes versus 3.6 minutes with experts processing information faster than non-experts (t8= -2.3, p=0.04).

Conclusion

A population database has great potential for reducing complexity and uncertainty in medicine to improve clinical care. The preferences identified for the population information display will guide future health information technology system designers for better and more intuitive display.