Elicitation and prioritization of requirements for electronic health records for oncology in low resource settings: A concept mapping study

The EQ-5D and EQ-HWB fit the perceptions of quality of life from a Chinese perspective: a concept mapping study

BACKGROUND

The escalating globalization of health assessments underscores a pivotal challenge: Do Quality of Life (QoL) instruments, developed primarily in Western contexts, accurately reflect the perspectives of non-Western populations? This study evaluates the alignment of EQ-5D and EQ-HWB items with QoL dimensions identified in Chinese literature, and compares QoL perceptions between Chinese residents and those living abroad who may be influenced by Western values.

METHODS

This study employed three successive rounds of participant recruitment to refine the concept mapping process. Initially, 13 bilingual QoL experts in the Netherlands piloted the methodology, providing feedback on item translation and expression. Subsequently, 18 Chinese expatriates in the Netherlands, with partial education abroad, reviewed the revised materials to represent perspectives influenced by Western culture. Finally, 20 native Chinese residents, who were born and educated in China, formed the target group. Utilizing feedback from the pilot stage, a pool of 54 QoL items derived from Chinese literature, plus an additional eight from the EQ-HWB, were assembled. The Group Concept Mapping (GCM) method was used, with participants organizing the items to reflect their interrelationships. Data were analyzed via Groupwisdom™, an online tool supporting multidimensional scaling (MDS) and cluster analysis, culminating in visual cluster rating maps that highlighted the item associations and groupings.

RESULTS

In China, a five-cluster MDS map was identified: personal abilities, family and society, physical health, mental health, and self-cognition (stress value: 0.183), with physical health prioritized. Abroad, four clusters appeared: mental health, social connections, daily activities, and physical function (stress value: 0.185), prioritizing social connections. The EQ-5D missed the "family and society" cluster in China and "social connections" abroad. In contrast, the EQ-HWB covered all clusters in both groups.

CONCLUSIONS

The EQ-5D items align well with the somatic and partially with the mental clusters, while the EQ-HWB also covers the adaptation cluster and the remaining mental cluster aspects. Both instruments reflect the QoL perceptions of Chinese individuals, although EQ-5D focuses more on health than overall well-being. Cultural differences affect priorities: participants in China value physical health most, whereas those abroad emphasize social connections.

Safety and usability of oncology information systems - a systematic review

Background

Digitalization has become integral to healthcare and specifically cancer treatment. Healthcare providers in oncology widely use electronic data collection and management systems in contemporary clinical practice. However, some reports point to severe problems regarding usability, which negatively impact the clinical workforce, as well as safety issues related to electronic health records, which potentially endanger patients. This systematic review aims to evaluate current scientific literature on the usability and safety aspects of electronic health records in oncology.

Methods

We conducted a systematic literature review on PubMed and Scopus to identify articles on the usability and safety aspects of electronic health records and clinical information systems utilized in oncological care. Two authors independently evaluated available literature according to predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Finally, we quantitatively analyzed and classified the reported findings.

Results

Our literature research strategy retrieved 1032 articles. We included seven articles for further processing. Three projects focused on the assessment of electronic health record functionality, three projects described the process of user-driven design, and one article described remediation procedures introduced to compensate inability of computer systems to adapt to user requirements.

Conclusion

Literature on the usability and safety of electronic health records in oncology is sparse. It is essential to raise awareness and start systematic activity to promote research on the usability of electronic health records in oncology.

What are the core competencies of a mental health nurse? A concept mapping study involving five stakeholder groups

Mental health nurses aim to provide high-quality care that is safe and person-centred. Service users require individualized care, responsive to their preferences, needs, and values. The views of service users, mental health nurses, nurse academics, psychiatrists, and nurse managers about the core competencies of mental health nurses have not been explored. Our study aimed to describe and contrast the views of multiple stakeholder groups on the core competencies of mental health nurses. Concept mapping is a six-step mixed-methods study design that combines qualitative data with principal component analysis to produce a two-dimensional concept map. Forty-eight people participated in the study from five stakeholder groups that included service users and clinicians. The final concept map had eight clusters: assessment and management of risk; understanding recovery principles; person- and family-centred care; good communication skills; knowledge about mental disorders and treatment; evaluating research and promoting physical health; a sense of humour; and physical and psychological interventions. There were important differences in how service users and health professionals ranked the relative importance of the clusters. Service users reported the understanding recovery principles cluster as the most important, whilst health professionals ranked the assessment and management of risk group the most important. There may be a disconnect between what service users and other stakeholders perceive to be the core competencies of mental health nurses. There is a need for more research to examine the differing perspectives of service users and health professionals on the core competencies of mental health nurses.

Human Factors and Organizational Issues in Health Informatics: Innovations and Opportunities

OBJECTIVE

Human factors and ergonomics (HF/E) frameworks and methods are becoming embedded in the health informatics community. There is now broad recognition that health informatics tools must account for the diverse needs, characteristics, and abilities of end users, as well as their context of use. The objective of this review is to synthesize the current nature and scope of HF/E integration into the health informatics community.

METHODS

Because the focus of this synthesis is on understanding the current integration of the HF/E and health informatics research communities, we manually reviewed all manuscripts published in primary HF/E and health informatics journals during 2020.

RESULTS

HF/E-focused health informatics studies included in this synthesis focused heavily on EHR customizations, specifically clinical decision support customizations and customized data displays, and on mobile health innovations. While HF/E methods aimed to jointly improve end user safety, performance, and satisfaction, most HF/E-focused health informatics studies measured only end user satisfaction.

CONCLUSION

HF/E-focused health informatics researchers need to identify and communicate methodological standards specific to health informatics, to better synthesize findings across resource intensive HF/E-focused health informatics studies. Important gaps in the HF/E design and evaluation process should be addressed in future work, including support for technology development platforms and training programs so that health informatics designers are as diverse as end users.