Improving work coordination through context

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A field study conducted in Winter 2016 in pharmacies and medical clinics revealed that pharmacists and**physicians need both a wide array of health-related information typically found in regional electronic health**records (EHRs), as well as contextual information in order to aid decision making. By contextual information,**we are referring to non-medical information on work practice or environment that, nevertheless, may play an**important role in decision making, work flow and work management actions. The contextual information that**we identified that is not easily available through EHRs was information on patient actions (ordering, picking up**prescriptions) but also on the workload and environmental context of their colleagues. Further, observations**we made with patients also showed that they created their own "shadow records" of their visits and actions,**also collecting and recording contextual information. The intention of this proposal is to explore more deeply**the role of contextual information in decision making, using the existing domain of medical ordering and**distribution at the consumer interface. While the study we conducted provided some early indicators of**contextual information in pharmacies and clinics, a deeper study, combined with an understanding of the data**already available in information systems like these, may reveal new and novel contextual metrics that may be**useful. The hypothesis is that certain kinds of contextual information will have differential benefits on decision**making and the efficiency of work processes.