2021 Research Stories

Guidelines For Meaningful and Effective Electronic Patient-Reported Outcomes Use in Clinical Settings
Governance, integration, and reporting are key systems-level principles that support incorporation of electronic patient-reported outcomes into clinical practice.
Virtual Pharmacy Improves Medication Use and Patient Safety in Palliative Care
Including virtual pharmacists in palliative care teams can reduce adverse drug interactions and increase the quality of life for people who are very ill.
Previous Research Stories

Health Information Exchange Streamlines Communication Between Poison Control Centers and Emergency Departments
Health information exchange capability between a poison control center and emergency department has the potential to reduce errors, improve decision making, and improve continuity of care for poisonings.

Improving Medication Safety with Accurate e-Prescribing Tool
Successful implementation of CancelRx, an e-prescribing functionality to electronically communicate medication discontinuation orders between electronic health records and pharmacies, can improve medication safety and reduce adverse drug events.

The Anesthesiology Control Tower: Like Air Traffic Control for Operating Rooms
Using algorithms can predict postoperative adverse outcomes with a high degree of accuracy leading to better outcomes for the highest risk patients.

User-Friendly Apps to Advance the Use of Standardized Patient-Reported Outcomes
The coordination of human and technical processes using a systems approach is crucial to ensure the successful use of PRO data.

Using Natural Language Processing to Improve Autism Spectrum Disorder Research and Care
Applying algorithms on free text in electronic health records can identify criteria for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which improves earlier detection and treatment as well as research with large-scale data.

Using Telemedicine to Improve Rheumatoid Arthritis Care for Patients in Alaska
In this study of Alaska Native people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), there was no difference in RA disease activity over 1 year, and no difference in quality of care for patients who receive rheumatology care through telemedicine versus patients receiving only in-person rheumatology care.