Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

A field study conducted in Winter 2016 in pharmacies and medical clinics revealed that pharmacists and*physicians need both a wide array of health-related information typically found in regional electronic health*records (EHRs), as well as contextual information in order to aid decision making. By contextual information,*we are referring to non-medical information on work practice or environment that, nevertheless, may play an*important role in decision making, work flow and work management actions. The contextual information that*we identified that is not easily available through EHRs was information on patient actions (ordering, picking up*prescriptions) but also on the workload and environmental context of their colleagues. Further, observations*we made with patients also showed that they created their own ""shadow records"" of their visits and actions,*also collecting and recording contextual information. The intention of this proposal is to explore more deeply*the role of contextual information in decision making, using the existing domain of medical ordering and*distribution at the consumer interface. While the study we conducted provided some early indicators of*contextual information in pharmacies and clinics, a deeper study, combined with an understanding of the data*already available in information systems like these, may reveal new and novel contextual metrics that may be*useful. The hypothesis is that certain kinds of contextual information will have differential benefits on decision*making and the efficiency of work processes.