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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Yearb Med Inform 2021; 30(01): 061-068
DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1726491
Special Section: Managing Pandemics with Health Informatics
Working Group Contributions

How to Improve Information Technology to Support Healthcare to Address the COVID-19 Pandemic: an International Survey with Health Informatics Experts

Authors

  • Max Topaz

    1   School of Nursing, Columbia University, New York, USA

  • Laura-Maria Peltonen

    2   Department of Nursing Science, University of Turku, Finland

  • James Mitchell

    3   School of Computing and Mathematics, Keele University, UK

  • Dari Alhuwail

    4   Information Science Department, Kuwait University, Kuwait
    5   Health Informatics Unit, Dasman Diabetes Institute, Kuwait

  • Seyedeh-Samin Barakati

    6   Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada

  • Adrienne Lewis

    7   Splatsin Health Services, Enderby, BC, Canada

  • Hans Moen

    8   Department of Future Technologies, University of Turku, Finland

  • Sai Pavan Kumar Veeranki

    9   Health & Bioresources/Molecular Diagnostics, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Graz, Austria
    10   Technical University of Graz, Graz, Austria

  • Lori Block

    11   School of Nursing, University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC, Canada

  • Tracie Risling

    12   College of Nursing, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

  • Charlene Ronquillo

    6   Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada
    11   School of Nursing, University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC, Canada
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Summary

Objectives: To identify the ways in which healthcare information and communication technologies can be improved to address the challenges raised by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: The study population included health informatics experts who had been involved with the planning, development and deployment of healthcare information and communication technologies in healthcare settings in response to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected via an online survey. A non-probability convenience sampling strategy was employed. Data were analyzed with content analysis.

Results: A total of 65 participants from 16 countries responded to the conducted survey. The four major themes regarding recommended improvements identified from the content analysis included: improved technology availability, improved interoperability, intuitive user interfaces and adoption of standards of care. Respondents also identified several key healthcare information and communication technologies that can help to provide better healthcare to patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, including telehealth, advanced software, electronic health records, remote work technologies (e.g., remote desktop computer access), and clinical decision support tools.

Conclusions: Our results help to identify several important healthcare information and communication technologies, recommended by health informatics experts, which can help to provide better care to patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results also highlight the need for improved interoperability, intuitive user interfaces and advocating the adoption of standards of care.

Keywords

Health Informatics - COVID-19 - international survey - telehealth


Publikationsverlauf

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
21. April 2021

© 2021. IMIA and Thieme. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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