Formative Evaluation: A Critical Component in EHR Implementation
- aIndiana University School of Medicine, Regenstrief Institute, Inc., Indianapolis, IN
- bCenter for Information Technology Leadership (CITL), Partners Healthcare System, Charlestown, MA
- cBrigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA
- dHarvard Medical School, Boston, MA
- Correspondence: Julie J. McGowan, PhD, FACMI, Information Resources and Educational Technology, Indiana University School of Medicine, 975 W. Walnut Street, IB-310, Indianapolis, IN 46202-5121 (e-mail: <jmcgowa{at}iupui.edu>)
- Received 6 August 2007
- Accepted 14 January 2008
Abstract
This Viewpoint paper has grown out of a presentation at the American College of Medical Informatics 2007 Winter Symposium, the resulting discussion, and several activities that have coalesced around an issue that most informaticians accept as true but is not commonly considered during the implementation of Electronic Health Records (EHR) outside of academia or research institutions. Successful EHR implementation is facilitated and sometimes determined by formative evaluation, usually focusing on process rather than outcomes. With greater federal funding for the implementation of electronic health record systems in health care organizations unfamiliar with research protocols, the need for formative evaluation assistance is growing. Such assistance, in the form of tools and protocols necessary to do formative evaluation and resulting in successful EHR implementations, should be provided by practicing medical informaticians.
Footnotes
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This work is supported in part by the National Resource Center of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, contract number 290-04-0016.
