Reflecting on the Role of IT and IT Research in Healthcare: Moving Healthcare Research into Practice

Today’s healthcare organizations face challenges of unprecedented complexity, breadth and intensity. Only a fraction of new scientific discoveries enter day-to-day clinical practice. To aid in the implementation of research into practice, healthcare organizations frequently turn to technology. However, even with the aid of technology, research often fails to be fully integrated into patient treatment. Part of the reason is due to the complexity of the healthcare system, which includes patients, providers, management, and local community input, all of which are influenced by the current political and economic environment. In addition, some authors have noted that studies have often lacked a rigorous scientific approach that would aid in predicting success in future implementations. Panelists will consider how the foundation theories and research in IT, as well as information technology itself, can be used to inform and facilitate the implementation of healthcare research into practice. Participation from the audience will be encouraged. Panel Objectives This panel seeks to broaden understanding of and spark new ideas on how IT research, its foundational theories and information technology itself can aid in implementing healthcare research into practice. Questions addressed will include: 1) What theories used for IT research can aid practitioners seeking to implement researchbased evidence into practice? And 2) How can information technologies and systems themselves be used to bring research into healthcare settings? Panel Layout The panel would consist of the moderator and 3 discussants. The moderator will begin with a brief introduction to the subject and discussants and the posing of question 1 above (5 minutes). The discussants and moderator will highlight the theoretical perspectives they have used in past research or areas where their thoughts are evolving. This will take 5-7 minutes each for a total of 20-28 minutes. Discussants and the moderator will then address question 2 above for 16-20 minutes. The remainder of the time will be spent asking audience members for their perspectives on the questions posed and fielding questions for the discussants from the audience. Proposed Panelists Moderator – Priscilla A. Arling, College of Business, Butler University. Priscilla Arling studies the intersection of IT, social networks and knowledge management in the healthcare field. She has published in the International Journal of Reliable and Quality e-Healthcare, the International Journal of Healthcare Information Systems and Informatics, and the Handbook of Healthcare Delivery Systems. Her work in the area has also been presented at the Gerontological Society’s annual meeting, the Workshop on Health IT and Economics, and HICSS. Panelists who have agreed to participate: Gordon Gao – R.H. Smith School, University of Maryland Guodong (Gordon) research interests include health IT and quality transparency. Dr. Gao has been conducting pioneering work on the digitized information in transforming healthcare, including physician usage of new technology, and role of empowered patients such as online doctor ratings by patients. His research has been published in top-tier journals like Management Science, Information Systems Research, Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, and Journal of Management Information Systems. His work is also presented at the International Conference on Information Systems, the Workshop on Information Systems and Economics, the Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences, INFORMS. Dr. Gao initiated and cochaired the annual Workshop on Health IT and Economics (WHITE 2010-2012), held in Washington DC. His work has been funded by AHRQ. Richard Klein – College of Business and Behavioral Science, Clemson University Rich researches electronic business initiatives within the healthcare industry focusing on office-based practices use Internet-based purchasing of medical supplies as well as electronic medical records (EMR) implementations and integration with other providers’ systems. His research has been published in Decision Sciences, the European Journal of Information Systems, the Journal of Management Information Systems, MIS Quarterly, and the Journal of Operations Management. Further, Rich has presented his work at national and international conferences, including the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, the Americas Conference on Information Systems, the European Conference on Information Systems, and the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences Annual Meeting. E. Vance Wilson – School of Business, Worcester Polytechnic Institute Vance Wilson currently chairs the Special Interest Group on Information Technology in Healthcare (SIG-Health) of the Association for Information Systems (AIS). He has served as supervising editor of the Information Systems and Healthcare Department of Communications of the AIS since 2004, and he has guest-edited special issues on e-health and health information systems in European Journal of Information Systems, e Service Journal, Information Systems Management, and the International Journal of Healthcare Technology Management. In 2009 he produced the edited book, Patient-Centered E-Health. Equipment Needs: A projector and cord to connect to a laptop to display any material needed. Panelists will provide laptops if they need them. This application is supported by the AIS Special Interest Group on IT in Healthcare (SIG-Health)