A socio-technical model of health information technology-related e-iatrogenesis

When encouraging reports of Health Information Technology successes are coupled with recent recommendations from the Institute of Medicine that healthcare organizations adopt state-of-the-art clinical information systems (ClSs) as a key component of the solution to care-quality problems, the pressure on hospitals and physician practices to implement CISs has never been greater. Unfortunately, few hospitals or physician practices have the organizational, IT, or informatics resources in place to achieve these goals. Recently there have been several reports that have begun to raise questions about the safety of CISs themselves. This so-called e-iatrogenesis, or patient harm resulting from use, at least in part, of health information technology, must be explored. This talk will focus on the need for, a discussion of, and potential uses of a socio-technical model that can help us understand e-iatrogenesis as it occurs in the modern, state of the art, health information technology-enabled healthcare organization.