Table 2.

Examples of Projects Funded through the CLIPS RFA.

♦ Improving Primary Care Patient Safety with Handheld DSS. This project examines the acceptance, benefits, and barriers in the use of stand-alone, handheld decision support systems (DSSs) in an ambulatory setting, and the clinical impact and cost-effectiveness of point-of-care, handheld ambulatory DSSs on medical errors.

♦ Mining Complex Clinical Data for Patient Safety Research. Researchers are developing an infrastructure to support automated surveillance of errors by applying a natural language processor to code the information contained in patients' electronic medical records to detect and characterize medical errors.

♦ Using Prospective Minimal Data Set Data to Enhance Resident Safety. This research project will determine whether preventable adverse outcomes for the frail elderly population in long-term care settings can be avoided by using computers that alert nursing and other staff to the likelihood of problems such as falls, pressure ulcers, and urinary tract infections.

♦ Using Handheld Technology to Reduce Errors in ADHD Care. This project is using a real-time, point-of-care handheld computerized decision support module to reduce medical errors in the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children.

♦ Linking User Error to Lab and Field Study of Medical Informatics. This project explores the relationship between human, machine, and environmental factors associated with the operation of infusion devices in clinical settings. The project will identify and characterize properties of infusion devices, environmental conditions, and operator cognition that promote user errors.