The Informatics Opportunities at the Intersection of Patient Safety and Clinical Informatics

• Published in: Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA Vol. 15; no. 4; pp. 397 - 407
• Main Authors: Kilbridge, Peter M., Classen, David C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Inc 01-07-2008; American Medical Informatics Association
• Subjects: Decision Support Systems, Clinical - statistics & numerical data; Delivery of Health Care - standards; Humans; Iatrogenic Disease - prevention & control; Medical Errors - prevention & control; Medical Informatics; Medical Records Systems, Computerized - statistics & numerical data; Safety Management; Systems Integration; Viewpoint Paper
• ISSN: 1067-5027; 1527-974X
• DOI: 10.1197/jamia.M2735

Health care providers have a basic responsibility to protect patients from accidental harm. At the institutional level, creating safe health care organizations necessitates a systematic approach. Effective use of informatics to enhance safety requires the establishment and use of standards for concept definitions and for data exchange, development of acceptable models for knowledge representation, incentives for adoption of electronic health records, support for adverse event detection and reporting, and greater investment in research at the intersection of informatics and patient safety. Leading organizations have demonstrated that health care informatics approaches can improve safety. Nevertheless, significant obstacles today limit optimal application of health informatics to safety within most provider environments. The authors offer a series of recommendations for addressing these challenges.