CAREER: Computational Approaches to Model Physicians' and Patients' Interactions with Health Information Technology

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The research objective of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) project is to model physicians' and patients' cognitive and behavioral interactions with health information technology (IT) as these individuals deal with two costly chronic diseases - diabetes and hypertension. The researcher will model these interactions using methods from applied psychology, visualization, and computer science. Using these models, the researcher will assess the quality of physicians' and patients' cognitive and behavioral interactions across existing commercial health IT systems, and will design new computer interfaces that improve how physicians and patients interact with health IT.By providing guidance for the effective design of health IT, this research will directly support current government initiatives aimed at stimulating the adoption of health IT. There is overwhelming evidence that health IT failures often result from a faulty understanding of how individuals use information while completing tasks and making decisions. This research aims to increase physicians' and patients' adoption of health IT by making it easier for them to find and use the right information at the right time. As chronic disease management poses a significant burden on the healthcare system, the specific design guidance identified via the proposed research has the potential to improve clinical outcomes and reduce the costs of managing these patients. Through this research, PhD students will be able to work closely with healthcare provider mentors and participate in interdisciplinary research teams with physicians, nurses, and computer scientists. Additionally, the researcher will develop realistic case studies to expose undergraduate and graduate students to the growing field of health systems engineering.