Summary
Objectives: To provide an introduction to the 2016 IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics
by the editors.
Methods: We present a brief overview of the 2016 special topic “Unintended consequences
of Health IT: new problems, new solutions”, we review our choice of special topic
section editors, and discuss the transitions in the editorial team for next year.
Results: This edition of the Yearbook acknowledges the fact that implementation and
use of Health Information Technology (HIT) may result in unintended consequences,
which may lead to both adverse and sometimes beneficial outcomes. However to date,
in the literature, undesired outcomes are emphasized with a focus on the complex causes
and the many sources that may generate them. The growing awareness of the importance
of HIT’s unintended consequences and their increasing documentation reflect a wider
acceptance of HIT by users (more use generating more consequences) and and a new type
of users (a shift from early adopters to late adopters and laggards), whith great
expectations regarding the improvement of care quality through HIT solutions. Different
points of view on new problems and new solutions of unintended consequences of Health
IT are presented through the keynote paper, survey papers, and the working group contributions.
Conclusions: The regular 2016 issue of the IMIA yearbook focuses on new unintended
consequences of Health IT – brought on by wider adoption and different types of users
as well as solutions to addressing them.
Keywords
Editorial - 2016 IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics - Unintended consequences of
Health IT - IMIA and its societies
