Information Technology for Children's Health and Health Care
Report on the Information Technology in Children's Health Care Expert Meeting, September 21–22, 2000
- Affiliations of the authors: Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut (RNS); University of Tennessee at Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee (SAS); University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing, Madison, Wisconsin (KK, PFB)
- Correspondence and reprints: Richard N. Shiffman, MD, MCIS, Yale Center for Medical Informatics, P.O. Box 208009, New Haven, CT 06520-8009; e-mail: 〈richard.shiffman{at}yale.edu〉
- Received 4 April 2001
- Accepted 4 June 2001
The field of medical (health) informatics broadly addresses the cognitive, information processing, and communication tasks of medical practice, education, and research by focusing on the development of computer-based patient records, decision support systems, information standards, data aggregation systems, communication systems, and educational programs for patients and health providers.1 This expanding field is facing challenges to develop, for special populations, technology solutions that acknowledge the unique needs of these groups.
On September 21 and 22, 2000, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with the assistance of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Center for Child Health Research, convened a meeting of experts and knowledgeable stakeholders to identify special information needs of pediatric care and health service research questions related to the use of information technology in children's health care. Participants included representatives from the informatics, health care provider (pediatrics, family practice, and nursing), public policy, business, and consumer communities (see Appendix). Several background papers were prepared to serve as a foundation on which participants' comments and suggestions couldbe built.12 13 14 15 This commentary is intended to highlight the special characteristics of the pediatric population and recommendations made at the conference of which informatics professionals should be aware.
Children constitute a large and heterogeneous population whose health care needs are distinct from those of adults. In 1999, there were 70.2 million children under the age of 18 in the United States, representing 26% of the population.2 Several characteristics of this population—and the health care system that provides for these patients—mandate special consideration in the design and deployment of enhanced information technology solutions. Describing the unique health needs of children explicitly, with respect to the health care community in which they receive service, should help explain why “one size fits all” solutions are not applicable to children's health. …
