Opioid Use is Associated with Higher Severity-Adjusted Episode Costs in Patients with Conservatively Managed Degenerative Joint Disease of the Back and Neck.

Background: Opioid use and misuse are urgent health issues. Previous studies suggest that opioid use increases healthcare resource use but severity adjustment is lacking.

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the severity-adjusted cost difference between opioid users and non-users among patients with conservatively managed degenerative joint disease of the spine within a large commercial health plan population in the United States.

Towards a reference model for representing nursing information needs.

Information needs studies in clinical settings often face the problem of integrating and analyzing data collected using different study tools. Generally, a coding taxonomy or a model is developed to capture and code the study data. Significant efforts are required to develop a model that not only captures the study data but is also closer to the clinical domain to draw meaningful real world inferences.

Heuristic evaluation of paper-based Web pages: a simplified inspection usability methodology.

Online medical information, when presented to clinicians, must be well-organized and intuitive to use, so that the clinicians can conduct their daily work efficiently and without error. It is essential to actively seek to produce good user interfaces that are acceptable to the user. This paper describes the methodology used to develop a simplified heuristic evaluation (HE) suitable for the evaluation of screen shots of Web pages, the development of an HE instrument used to conduct the evaluation, and the results of the evaluation of the aforementioned screen shots.

Practical considerations for exploiting the World Wide Web to create infobuttons.

Background: We are studying ways to provide automated, context-specific links (called "infobuttons") between clinical information systems (CIS) and other information resources available on the World Wide Web. As part of this work, we observed the information needs that arose when clinicians used a CIS and we classified those needs into generic questions. We then sought general methods for accessing information resources to answer the questions.

Characterizing information needs and cognitive processes during CIS use.

Medical errors are often associated with inadequate cognitive processing that is based upon impaired access to information.1 Understanding the information needs of nurses and physicians' when using a clinical information system (CIS) is difficult largely because there are few systematic attempts made to do so. We collected 15.

Clinical information needs in context: an observational study of clinicians while using a clinical information system.

Introduction: The development of tools to meet the information needs of clinicians requires an understanding of the clinician and the context in which clinical decisions are being made.

Methods: We conducted an observational study of clinicians' information needs via think-aloud protocols during which we observed physicians and nurses as they used the clinical information system. Protocol analysis was then used to identify the information needs events, the types of questions that were asked, the method of meeting that need, the success or failure of meeting the specific information need, and the context in which it arose.

Use of online resources while using a clinical information system.

Background: Clinical information system (CIS) use is likely to evoke information needs, yet information resources use during CIS use has not been studied.

Methods: We used CIS log files and a survey to characterize clinicians' use of resources and infobuttons (context-sensitive links from a CIS to specific resources) while using a CIS.

Results: We examined 38,763 uses of resources and infobuttons by 2,607 users to identify specific sources and contexts (CIS functions) in which they used them.

The classification of clinicians' information needs while using a clinical information system.

Introduction: Information needs are prevalent in clinical practice. They represent a potential source of medical errors. This study seeks to empirically determine the information needs of clinicians while using a clinical information system (CIS), and characterize those needs.