Skip to main content
Proceedings of the AMIA Symposium logoLink to Proceedings of the AMIA Symposium
. 2002:170–174.

Theoretical, empirical and practical approaches to resolving the unmet information needs of clinical information system users.

James J Cimino 1, Jianhua Li 1, Suzanne Bakken 1, Vimla L Patel 1
PMCID: PMC2244413  PMID: 12463809

Abstract

We hypothesize that when clinicians review clinical data in an electronic medical record, the information needs that arise are predictable, based on a number of situational factors. Because our theory does not say, exactly, what those needs are, we are using an empirical approach (observation) to detecting and categorizing them. For each need, we can construct an "infobutton" that links the clinical data to an on-line information resource. We have constructed an Infobutton Manager to match the data being reviewed by clinicians with context-appropriate infobuttons. This paper describes how the theory, observations, and practical solutions can come together to improve clinician decision making by resolving information needs.

Full text

PDF
170

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Cimino C., Barnett G. O. Analysis of physician questions in an ambulatory care setting. Proc Annu Symp Comput Appl Med Care. 1991:995–999. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Cimino C., Barnett G. O., Hassan L., Blewett D. R., Piggins J. L. Interactive Query Workstation: standardizing access to computer-based medical resources. Comput Methods Programs Biomed. 1991 Aug;35(4):293–299. doi: 10.1016/0169-2607(91)90007-g. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cimino J. J., Elhanan G., Zeng Q. Supporting infobuttons with terminological knowledge. Proc AMIA Annu Fall Symp. 1997:528–532. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Cimino J. J. From data to knowledge through concept-oriented terminologies: experience with the Medical Entities Dictionary. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2000 May-Jun;7(3):288–297. doi: 10.1136/jamia.2000.0070288. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Cimino J. J., Johnson S. B., Aguirre A., Roderer N., Clayton P. D. The MEDLINE Button. Proc Annu Symp Comput Appl Med Care. 1992:81–85. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Cimino J. J., Patel V. L., Kushniruk A. W. Studying the human-computer-terminology interface. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2001 Mar-Apr;8(2):163–173. doi: 10.1136/jamia.2001.0080163. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Cimino J. J., Patel V. L., Kushniruk A. W. What do patients do with access to their medical records? Stud Health Technol Inform. 2001;84(Pt 2):1440–1444. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Clyman J. I., Powsner S. M., Paton J. A., Miller P. L. Using a network menu and the UMLS Information Sources Map to facilitate access to online reference materials. Bull Med Libr Assoc. 1993 Apr;81(2):207–216. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Covell D. G., Uman G. C., Manning P. R. Information needs in office practice: are they being met? Ann Intern Med. 1985 Oct;103(4):596–599. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-103-4-596. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Hripcsak G., Cimino J. J., Sengupta S. WebCIS: large scale deployment of a Web-based clinical information system. Proc AMIA Symp. 1999:804–808. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Huff S. M., Rocha R. A., McDonald C. J., De Moor G. J., Fiers T., Bidgood W. D., Jr, Forrey A. W., Francis W. G., Tracy W. R., Leavelle D. Development of the Logical Observation Identifier Names and Codes (LOINC) vocabulary. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 1998 May-Jun;5(3):276–292. doi: 10.1136/jamia.1998.0050276. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Masys D. R. An evaluation of the source selection elements of the prototype UMLS Information Sources Map. Proc Annu Symp Comput Appl Med Care. 1992:295–298. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. McKnight L., Stetson P. D., Bakken S., Curran C., Cimino J. J. Perceived information needs and communication difficulties of inpatient physicians and nurses. Proc AMIA Symp. 2001:453–457. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Miller R. A., Gieszczykiewicz F. M., Vries J. K., Cooper G. F. CHARTLINE: providing bibliographic references relevant to patient charts using the UMLS Metathesaurus Knowledge Sources. Proc Annu Symp Comput Appl Med Care. 1992:86–90. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Osheroff J. A., Forsythe D. E., Buchanan B. G., Bankowitz R. A., Blumenfeld B. H., Miller R. A. Physicians' information needs: analysis of questions posed during clinical teaching. Ann Intern Med. 1991 Apr 1;114(7):576–581. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-114-7-576. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the AMIA Symposium are provided here courtesy of American Medical Informatics Association

RESOURCES