We then could move on to explore how these data should be displayed. What should be presented as discrete numbers? What would be better to summarize graphically? How can we highlight important trends? A significant amount of work has been done in fields with so-called “knowledge workers”—professionals who need to review and act on large amounts of data. Work also has been done with other data-intensive professionals such as airplane pilots, air traffic controllers, and stockbrokers. We should be able to glean valuable insights into solutions from these investigations and use them to improve our data management problem.
Finally, these displays need to be prototyped and tested on the wards. Does the new display help make the hospitalist more efficient? Can they pick out the important data faster? Do they improve length of stay, morbidity and mortality, or patient satisfaction? It is this critical evaluation that is dearly lacking as we work to improve how hospitalists do their jobs.
Healthcare providers generally are capable, hard-working professionals with the best intentions. Inefficient, overwhelmed data management systems ultimately make us equally inefficient and overwhelmed providers. In an age when abundant scientific study and complex healthcare delivery systems are generating volumes of new information, we have a lot to learn about what to do with it all. TH
Dr. Thomas is a hospitalist and assistant medical director, Clinical Informatics, The Queen’s Medical Center, Honolulu, Hawaii. He’s also assistant professor and chief, Division of Medical Informatics, Department of Medicine, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Dr. Rosenman is senior associate consultant, Section of Hospital Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, and instructor of medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minn.
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