Blog: UT Trainees Tackle Health Information Technology Issues; health IT can cause a loss in efficiency and an increase in medical errors

UT Trainees Tackle Health Information Technology Issues
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (11/17/08) Cahill, Rob

University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences at Houston (SHIS) has received a $1.3 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to support research by six trainees in health information technology. SHIS principal investigator Todd R. Johnson says a huge effort is underway to use health information technology to improve health care, but notes that current technology is not designed to efficiently support the needs of clinicians. As a result, Johnson says there have been numerous cases where the introduction of health IT causes a loss in efficiency and an increase in medical errors. A report by the Institute of Medicine estimates that medical errors cost the United States approximately $38 billion a year and that as many as 98,000 people die in hospitals each year as a result of a medical error. Training grant co-director Eric Thomas says that most medical errors are partially because of information overload. The trainees are working on projects that will increase patient safety. One trainee is focusing on how to design information communications systems so physicians do not miss abnormal test result notifications, while another trainee is looking to improve emergency room decision making. Another trainee is using radio identification technology to track the movements of both emergency room personnel and supplies, and another is using information from simulation studies to develop an IT solution to improve the effectiveness and timeliness of clinical decisions in emergency rooms.

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