Development of a clinical information tool for the electronic medical record: a case study

Area of Science:

• Medical Informatics
• Health Sciences Library Systems
• Clinical Information Systems

Background:

• Academic medical centers require efficient access to information at the point of care.
• Integrating digital tools into electronic health records (EHRs) is crucial for modern healthcare.

Purpose of the Study:

• To outline the development process of a clinical information tool for EHR integration.
• To describe the creation of a tool for quick access to full-text information resources within a large academic medical center.

Main Methods:

• Development occurred at the University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences Library System.
• A search box with subject tabs was created, enabling federated searches across diverse resource pools.
• Clustering technology was employed to organize search results dynamically for direct access.

Main Results:

• A clinical information tool was successfully embedded into the academic medical center's EHR after extensive planning.
• The tool, named Clinical-e, provides point-of-care access to designated full-text information resources.

Conclusions:

• The library effectively developed and implemented the Clinical-e tool for point-of-care use.
• Future work will focus on refining the tool and assessing its impact and effectiveness in clinical settings.