TY - GEN
T1 - Development and evaluation of an electronic health record configuration and customization laboratory course for clinical informatics students
AU - Mohan, Vishnu
AU - Hersh, William R.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Objectives: There is a need for informatics educational programs to develop laboratory courses that facilitate hands-on access to an EHR, and allow students to learn and evaluate functionality and configuration options. This is particularly relevant given the diversity of backgrounds of informatics students. Methods: We implemented an EHR laboratory course that allowed students to explore an EHR in both inpatient and outpatient clinical environments. The course focused on specific elements of the EHR including order set development, customization, clinical decision support, ancillary services, and billing and coding functionality. Students were surveyed at the end of the course for their satisfaction with the learning experience. Results and Conclusions: We detailed challenges as well as lessons learned after analyzing student evaluations of this course. Features that promote the successful offering of an online EHR course, include (1) using more than one EHR to allow students to compare functionalities, (2) ensuring appropriate course calibration, (3) countering issues specific to EHR usability, and (4) fostering a fertile environment for rich online conversations are discussed.
AB - Objectives: There is a need for informatics educational programs to develop laboratory courses that facilitate hands-on access to an EHR, and allow students to learn and evaluate functionality and configuration options. This is particularly relevant given the diversity of backgrounds of informatics students. Methods: We implemented an EHR laboratory course that allowed students to explore an EHR in both inpatient and outpatient clinical environments. The course focused on specific elements of the EHR including order set development, customization, clinical decision support, ancillary services, and billing and coding functionality. Students were surveyed at the end of the course for their satisfaction with the learning experience. Results and Conclusions: We detailed challenges as well as lessons learned after analyzing student evaluations of this course. Features that promote the successful offering of an online EHR course, include (1) using more than one EHR to allow students to compare functionalities, (2) ensuring appropriate course calibration, (3) countering issues specific to EHR usability, and (4) fostering a fertile environment for rich online conversations are discussed.
KW - Informatics workforce training
KW - Veterans Administration
KW - VistA
KW - electronic health records
KW - laboratory course
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U2 - 10.3233/978-1-61499-289-9-1122
DO - 10.3233/978-1-61499-289-9-1122
M3 - Conference contribution
C2 - 23920896
AN - SCOPUS:84894303348
SN - 9781614992882
T3 - Studies in Health Technology and Informatics
SP - 1122
BT - MEDINFO 2013 - Proceedings of the 14th World Congress on Medical and Health Informatics
PB - IOS Press
T2 - 14th World Congress on Medical and Health Informatics, MEDINFO 2013
Y2 - 20 August 2013 through 23 August 2013
ER -