New eGEMs Patient-Centered Clinical Decisions Research Papers Published

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC— The first inaugural papers for Better Decisions Together have recently been published in AcademyHealth’s peer-reviewed, open access journal, The Journal for Electronic Health Data and Methods (eGEMs). Each paper emphasizes the potential of patient-centered clinical decision support to address broad issues in the U.S. health care system regarding quality and safety while also achieving better outcomes and better patient and provider satisfaction.

Better Decisions Together is created by a partnership between eGEMs and the Patient-Centered Clinical Decision Support Learning Network, which is hosted by RTI International and funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). It is an ongoing section in eGEMs that highlights how information, such a lab results and genomic data, can be delivered to patients in ways that they can understand and use. The papers will help raise the visibility of work aimed at ensuring learning health systems are indeed patient-centered.

The section consists of four papers:

• Delivering Patient Data to Patients Themselves
• The Imperative for Patient-Centered Clinical Decision Support
• Methods for Patient-Center Interface Design of Test Result Display in Online Portals
• Generation and Implementation of a Patient-Centered and Patient-Facing Genomic Test Report in the EHR

Key findings from the papers include the following:

• Research and development of patient-centered CDS tools designed to support improved patient outcomes, are enhanced by early and substantial engagement of patients in contributing to all phases of tool design and development.
• Patients perceive the interface as usable and fulfilling for most of their information needs when it comes to interpreting certain types of test results.
• Patient-centered software could be better designed through findings from requirement elicitation and/or needs assessment studies.
• The way forward is to engage patients integrally in conceptualizing, designing, and testing new information tools.

For more information, visit the Patient-Centered Clinical Decision Support Learning Network at pccds-ln.org or AcademyHealth at academyhealth.org.