Ofir Ben-Assuli

Electronic health records, adoption, quality of care, legal and privacy issues and their implementation in emergency departments

Recently, the healthcare sector has shown a growing interest in information technologies. Two popular health IT (HIT) products are the electronic health record (EHR) and health information exchange (HIE) networks. The introduction of these tools is believed to improve care, but has also raised some important questions and legal and privacy issues. The implementation of these systems has not gone smoothly, and still faces some considerable barriers. This article reviews EHR and HIE to address these obstacles, and analyzes the current state of development and adoption in various countries around the world. Moreover, legal and ethical concerns that may be encountered by EHR users and purchasers are reviewed. Finally, links and interrelations between EHR and HIE and several quality of care issues in todays healthcare domain are examined with a focus on EHR and HIE in the emergency department (ED), whose unique characteristics makes it an environment in which the implementation of such technology may be a major contributor to health, but also faces substantial challenges. The paper ends with a discussion of specific policy implications and recommendations based on an examination of the current limitations of these systems.

The role of dietician follow-up in the success of bariatric surgery

BACKGROUND A growing number of patients have been undergoing bariatric surgery in recent years. The role of adherence with regular dietician follow-up in successful long-term weight reduction has yet to be determined, and there are no studies characterizing the utilization of nutritional services after bariatric surgery. The objective of this study was to determine whether dietary counseling by a dietician can contribute to weight reduction after surgery in a follow-up of morbidly obese adult patients who underwent bariatric surgery. METHODS Inclusion criteria were age 20-70 at the time of the bariatric surgery and available body mass index (BMI) measurements before and at least 1 month after the surgery. Medical history and blood test results (triglycerides, cholesterol, and glucose) were recorded. Furthermore, data were collected on the utilization of healthcare services. RESULTS The final study sample consisted of 1680 patients. Only 681 (40.54%) patients in the cohort attended dietician counseling in Maccabi, and only 471 (28%) patients received such counseling at least twice. Patients attending significant diet counseling had significantly higher proportions of at least 5% reduction in BMI. Two or more visits to dietician counseling were significantly and independently associated (odds ratio = 1.56, 1.02-2.38, 95% CI, P = .04) with a BMI reduction of at least 5%, adjusting for age, gender, number of expert counseling sessions, additional surgery, type of operation, and the interval between BMI measurements. CONCLUSION Structured nutritional counseling after bariatric surgery can help in achieving clinically significant weight reduction.

Using Electronic Medical Record Systems for Admission Decisions in Emergency Departments: Examining the Crowdedness Effect

Many medical organizations have deployed electronic medical record (EMR) information systems (IS) to improve medical decision-making and increase efficiency. Despite their advantages, however, EMR IS may make less of a contribution in the stressful environment of an emergency department (ED) that operates under tight time constraints. The high level of crowdedness in the EDs itself can cause physicians to make medical decisions resulting in more unnecessary admissions and fewer necessary admissions. Thus this study evaluated the contribution of an EMR IS to physicians by investigating whether EMR IS leads to improved medical outcomes in points of care in EDs under different levels of crowdedness. For this purpose a track log-file analysis of a database containing 3.2 million ED referrals in seven main hospitals in Israel (the whole population in these hospitals) was conducted. The findings suggest that viewing medical history via the EMR IS leads to better admission decisions, and reduces the number of possibly avoidable single-day admissions. Furthermore, although the ED can be very stressful especially on crowded days, physicians used EMR IS more on crowded days than on non-crowded days. These results have implications as regards the viability of EMR IS in complex, fast-paced environments.

EHR in Emergency Rooms: Exploring the Effect of Key Information Components on Main Complaints

This study characterizes the information components associated with improved medical decision-making in the emergency room (ER). We looked at doctors’ decisions to use or not to use information available to them on an electronic health record (EHR) and a Health Information Exchange (HIE) network, and tested for associations between their decision and parameters related to healthcare outcomes and processes. Using information components from the EHR and HIE was significantly related to improved quality of healthcare processes. Specifically, it was associated with both a reduction in potentially avoidable admissions as well as a reduction in rapid readmissions. Overall, the three information components; namely, previous encounters, imaging, and lab results emerged as having the strongest relationship with physicians’ decisions to admit or discharge. Certain information components, however, presented an association between the diagnosis and the admission decisions (blood pressure was the most strongly associated parameter in cases of chest pain complaints and a previous surgical record for abdominal pain). These findings show that the ability to access patients’ medical history and their long term health conditions (via the EHR), including information about medications, diagnoses, recent procedures and laboratory tests is critical to forming an appropriate plan of care and eventually making more accurate admission decisions.

Using electronic health record systems to optimize admission decisions: The Creatinine case study

Many medical organizations have implemented electronic health record (EHR) and health information exchange (HIE) networks to improve medical decision-making. This study evaluated the contribution of EHR and HIE networks to physicians by investigating whether health information technology can lead to more efficient admission decisions by reducing redundant admissions in the stressful environment of emergency. Log-files were retrieved from an integrative and interoperable EHR that serves seven main Israeli hospitals. The analysis was restricted to a group of patients seen in the emergency departments who were administered a Creatinine test. The assessment of the contribution of EHR to admission decisions used various statistical analyses and track log-file analysis. We showed that using the EHR contributes to more efficient admission decisions and reduces the number of avoidable admissions. In particular, there was a reduction in readmissions when patient history was viewed. Using EHR can help respond to the international problem of avoidable hospital readmissions.

The association between the serum levels of uric acid and alanine aminotransferase in a population-based cohort

Elevated serum uric acid levels reflect and also cause both oxidative stress and insulin resistance and are frequently observed in patients with the metabolic syndrome. A strong association exists between the metabolic syndrome and non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Therefore, we aimed to test the association between uric acid and elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT), as a surrogate for NAFLD, using real‐world data.

Using Electronic Medical Records in Admission Decisions: A Cost Effectiveness Analysis†

In recent years, the healthcare sector has invested heavily in medical information systems to improve decision making while reducing medical costs and integrating medical data from multiple sources. However, the overall contribution of this technology to the medical field remains controversial, especially in high-stress environments such as the emergency department. This article evaluates the differential effects of accessing an electronic medical record (EMR) system on the decision to admit, based on diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), which is one of the main reasons people go to the emergency department. The admission decision with or without accessing the EMR system is modeled as a decision tree and a Markovian process. A cost-effectiveness analysis compares the added value of information (retrieved from the EMR system) against the cost of providing this information. This model is then tested on a simulation of patients presenting symptoms of AMI. The results show that use of the EMR led to greater cost-effectiveness in cases of suspected AMI. The findings of this study may assist physicians by demonstrating a probable contribution of EMR to improved medical outcomes and may inform policy makers in the healthcare sector regarding the advisability of investing in such systems in an emergency department.

Cost-Effectiveness Evaluation of EHR: Simulation of an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm in the Emergency Department

Health care organizations have installed electronic systems to increase efficiency in health care. Empirically assessing the cost-effectiveness of technologies to the health care system is a challenging and complex task. This study examined cost-effectiveness of additional clinical information supplied via an EHR system by simulating a case of abdominal aortic aneurysm devised and acted professionally by the Israel Center of Medical Simulation. We conducted a simulation-based study on physicians who were asked to treat a simulated patient for the prevalent medical scenario of hip and leg pain that actually corresponded to an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Half of the participating physicians from the Department of Emergency Medicine at Tel-Hashomer Hospital – Israel’s largest - had access to an EHR system that integrates medical data from multiple health providers (community and hospitals) in addition to the local health record, and half did not. To model medical decision making, the results of the simulation were combined with a Markov Model within a decision tree. Cost-effectiveness was analyzed by comparing the effects of the admission/discharge decision in units of quality adjusted life years (QALYs) to the estimated costs. The results showed that using EHR in the ED increases the QALY of the patient and improves medical decision-making. The expenditure per patient for one QALY unit as a result of using the EHR was

Assessing the perception of information components in financial decision support systems

1229, which is very cost-effective according to many accepted threshold values (less than all these values). Thus, using the EHR contributes to making a cost-effective decision in this specific but prevalent case.

Efficient use of medical IS: diagnosing chest pain

Estimating the contribution of DSS to financial consulting decision-making is attracting considerable interest in the fast-growing field of banking DSS. This study evaluated the perceived role of banking DSS in the decision-making of investment counselors. A questionnaire was submitted to 40 investment counselors to determine the comparative importance of DSS information components. Data were analyzed using two complementary methods (analytical hierarchy processing and Neumann-Segev). The most important information components were customers and investment risk classification, and customer goals and nature of investment. The results differed across administrative ranks and as a function of the users experience level.