Social Informatics of IT in Healthcare
Thread 4

Concerns about security and privacy are among the key barriers to the adoption and use of IT in healthcare. At the same time, IT not adequately designed for the clinical or healthcare context of its users creates security and privacy risks. Ensuring the security and privacy of IT in the delivery of healthcare requires recognizing the complex social context in which technology is used – a social context that includes patient, clinical, and organizational interests, as well as those of other “stakeholders” such as policy makers and insurers. While the security and privacy of healthcare information is assumed necessary by all stakeholders, the definition and practice of “secure” and “private” varies across stakeholders.

We seek to examine how both communities of practice and organizational factors influence: (a) perceptions of privacy and security of health information, and (b) IT practices for the exchange of three types of health information (laboratory test results, radiological test results, physician notes), and (c) how perceptions and practices vary across healthcare stakeholders. In addition, we will study provider morale and patient satisfaction because these outcomes are important to hospital leadership.

Research

The team has conducted 70+ interviews with clinicians and patients and has published the following papers:

• Appari, Ajit, Emily K. Carian, M. Eric Johnson, and Denise Anthony (2011), "Medication Administration Quality and Health Information Technology: A National Study of US Hospitals," forthcoming in Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. Published Online First 28 October 2011.
  http://jamia.bmj.com/content/early/2011/10/28/amiajnl-2011-000289.abstract
• Ajit Appari, Denise Anthony and M. Eric Johnson, "HIPAA Compliance: An Institutional Theory Perspective", in Proceedings of the 15th Americas Conference on Information Systems, San Francisco, CA, August 6-9, 2009.

Education and Outreach

The Thread 4 team has led a series of health policy faculty lunch discussions and seminars for graduate students.  They include:

• Two Doctoral Seminar Modules on Electronic Medical Records.
  
  • Rhetoric and Reality about the Impact of Implementing Electronic Medical Records: on Quality (Session 1: October 30th)
  • Rhetoric and Reality about the Impact of Implementing Electronic Medical Records: on Cost (Session 2: November 3rd)
• A three-session seminar entitled "Electronic Medical Records: Balancing the Needs for Access and Concerns for Privacy” (December 15-17, 2009)
• A seminar on the “State of the Art Authentication in Healthcare” (May 25, 2010)
• Two Doctoral Seminar Modules on Electronic Medical Records (May 27, 2010 & June 3, 2010)

Team

Thread 4 is led by Associate Professor Denise Anthony (Sociology).  Team members also include Postdoctoral Researcher Tim Stablein and Senior Researcher Ann Flood.