Workshop on Interactive Systems in Healthcare (WISH) 2012

Efforts to expand adoption and use of health information technology (IT) partially rely upon the alignment of health IT design and clinical practice, including the extent to which health IT offerings support health care providers and patients. The misalignment between health IT and its ability to fully and seamlessly support the workflow, systems, and processes of health care providers limits the technology's positive impact on the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care.

The Workshop on Interactive Systems in Healthcare (WISH) was initiated in 2010 to address design limitations and other issues that stymie the development and adoption of health IT. WISH provides a forum for sharing research, experiences, and perspectives that enable progress in the design and development of health IT. WISH facilitates interdisciplinary dialog on health IT and interactive systems in health care, and promotes innovation by convening health IT research communities from a variety of disciplines including biomedical informatics, human-computer interaction, computer science, sociology, and medical anthropology.

The specific aims of this project were to:

• Develop research agendas for interactive systems in health care and identify strategies and mechanisms for studying them.
• Discuss and develop consensus on research methodological and technical issues with regard to design and evaluation of interactive systems in health care.
• Establish a new channel for dissemination and implementation of research on interactive systems in health care.
• Provide a forum for developing new partnerships between researchers and stakeholder organizations and building their capacity to participate in research activities and using the results of research on interactive systems in health care.
• Establish a mentorship program for junior researchers in the field and provide them the opportunity to meet leading researchers in areas related to interactive systems in health care.

The WISH 2012 conference was held in early November in Chicago, IL as a day-and-a-half interdisciplinary research symposium in conjunction with the AMIA Annual Symposium. The format of the workshop included keynote speakers; panel discussions; technical presentations on topics such as design, methodology, evaluation, and technology; informal breakout sessions; and poster sessions. Additionally, the workshop included a mentorship program to pair junior researchers and students with prominent senior researchers in related fields.

The WISH 2012 conference was successful in advancing its stated goals. The meeting was attended by more than 75 representatives from the fields of human-computer interaction and biomedical informatics, and convened disparate communities to address issues of mutual interest related to the design, implementation, and use of interactive systems in health care. Following this success, WISH 2013 was held in conjunction with the 2013 AMIA annual meeting in November in Washington, DC.