All Articles on Health Informatics

• Colon cancer screening doubles with new e-health record use

  Researchers used electronic health records to identify Group Health patients who weren’t screened regularly for cancer of the colon and rectum—and to encourage them to be screened. This centralized, automated approach doubled these patients’ rates of on-time screening—and saved health costs—over two years. The March 5 Annals of Internal Medicine published the randomized controlled trial.
• Patients feel more control of their health when doctors share notes

  Patients with access to notes written by their doctors feel more in control of their care and report a better understanding of their medical issues, improved recall of their care plan, and being more likely to take their medications as prescribed, a study published in the Oct. 2 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine has found.
• Integrated health systems form largest U.S. private-sector diabetes registry

  Group Health and 10 other integrated health systems, with more than 16 million members, have combined de-identified data from their electronic health records to form one of the largest, most comprehensive, and most geographically diverse diabetes registries in the nation. According to a new study published today in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Preventing Chronic Disease, the SUPREME-DM DataLink provides a unique and powerful resource to conduct population-based diabetes research and clinical trials.
• Patient-centered health IT helps advance high-quality care

  A key provision in 2009's economic stimulus legislation propelled health information technology (IT) into national health care policy debates.
• Medical home pays off, improving primary care and cutting cost at 2 years

  In a two-year evaluation at Group Health Cooperative, transforming primary care into a “patient-centered medical home” model paid off. The evaluation compared the medical home prototype to GH's other medical centers, showing that the quality of care was higher, patients reported having better experiences, and clinicians said they felt less “burned out.”
• New online care for hypertension gets results

  Web-based care and at-home blood pressure checks can help control hypertension without office visits, according to the "e-BP" (Electronic Blood Pressure) study of more than 700 Group Health patients published in the June 25 Journal of the American Medical Association. "To our knowledge, this is the first large randomized controlled trial to use Web-based care and a patient-shared electronic medical record to improve treatment outcomes of a chronic disease," said study leader Beverly B. Green, MD, MPH.