Electronic Health Record Usability When Caring for Children With Medical Complexity.

Objectives: To evaluate usability of and clinician satisfaction with the electronic health record (EHR) in the context of caring for children with medical complexity (CMC) at a large academic pediatric hospital and to identify key areas for targeted improvements.

Methods: Cross-sectional study of pediatric faculty and advanced practice providers across several pediatric specialties using an online Research Electronic Data Capture survey. EHR usability was measured with 6 validated questions from the National Usability-Focused Health Information System Scale, and satisfaction with common EHR functionalities was measured with 6 original Likert-scale questions and 3 free-text questions.

Social media: A new tool for outbreak surveillance.

Social media platforms allow users to share news, ideas, thoughts, and opinions on a global scale. Data processing methods allow researchers to automate the collection and interpretation of social media posts for efficient and valuable disease surveillance. Data derived from social media and internet search trends have been used successfully for monitoring and forecasting disease outbreaks such as Zika, Dengue, MERS, and Ebola viruses.