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Pharmacists Role Clinical Informatics
Pharmacists Role Clinical Informatics
Pharmacists Role Clinical Informatics
• Ensuring that system architecture supports data inter- porting, predicting, and harvesting new information to cre-
change. ate new knowledge for improving outcomes.
• Ensuring that data, information, and knowledge are
audited, measured, and evaluated for effectiveness. Knowledge Application and Delivery. Pharmacy informat-
• Ensuring that data, information, and knowledge assets ics is responsible for leveraging knowledge at the right time
are validated, integrated, normalized, consolidated, and place within a provider’s workflow to improve caregiver
and routinely optimized. effectiveness, work satisfaction, patient satisfaction, and
• Developing infrastructure for knowledge, metadata, the quality of care. Pharmacy informatics must continue to
and terminology management. evolve to optimize the use of clinical decision support and
• Ensuring that information is readily and rapidly under- develop tools that reduce information overload and provider
stood and accessed within the workflow. burden. Pharmacy informatics is responsible for looking be-
• Ensuring that information and knowledge are centrally yond the traditional means of delivering knowledge by ana-
managed, collaboratively developed, and easily dis- lyzing process and outcomes data from existing applications
seminated and maintained. to develop and implement new solutions for embedding
• Ensuring that information and knowledge are platform knowledge into the workflow.13
independent.
• Developing tools to effectively maintain and manage Knowledge Asset Management. Pharmacy informatics must
data, information, and knowledge. play a significant role in managing and supporting a health-
care system’s technology-enabled medication information
Maintenance roles and responsibilities include and knowledge assets. This role would include assisting
with authoring, encoding, cataloging, versioning, updating,
• Corrective maintenance: taking the corrective and ed- disseminating, and maintaining an inventory of medication-
ucative steps required to correct problems with the uti- related information and knowledge. Despite the emergence
lization of a clinical information system or technology. of commercial content-management systems and groupware,
• Customized maintenance: modifying features already pharmacy informatics must provide the appropriate level of
in production systems that require updating or modifi-
oversight and governance for these activities and play a role
cation for user needs; customized maintenance is es-
in the development of future knowledge asset–management
sential in clinical information systems, as healthcare
systems that support end-to-end knowledge engineering.
is constantly changing (e.g., new drugs, new treatment
guidance, new procedures).
Practice Analytics. The healthcare industry has histori-
• Enhancement maintenance: improving the perfor-
cally generated large amounts of data driven by financial,
mance of applications and people associated with the
regulatory, compliance, and patient care–related activities.
use of tools.
These data have primarily been stored in hard copy form,
• Preventive maintenance: taking steps in advance to re-
making them difficult to process through traditional data-
duce the risk of a problem, including testing before a
base management tools. Paper records have also limited op-
new release or system upgrade.12
portunities for the effective exchange of information with
Information and Knowledge Delivery. Healthcare delivery other healthcare systems and for providing actionable in-
is inherently complex and knowledge dependent, and it is sight on reducing costs, improving performance, and mak-
becoming ever more challenging for providers to absorb and ing decisions. The recent infusion of financial incentives
assimilate the growing volume and granularity of knowl- and regulation involving HIT from the American Recovery
edge needed for safe and effective patient care. The clinical and Reinvestment Act14 has fueled the implementation of
knowledge available is often conflicting, misaligned, and technologies across the United States, contributing to an
not readily identified or available at the point of care. To exponential growth of available and usable healthcare data.
serve the needs of any clinical encounter, relevant patient- Healthcare organizations are looking for every opportunity
centered knowledge must be accessible to the person supply- to transform and leverage data into information that pro-
ing care at the right time in the workflow. Such knowledge vides concise, timely, descriptive, predictive, and prescrip-
can be delivered proactively (before decisions are made), tive insight into their business and clinical data. Business
interactively (as decisions are made), or asynchronously or intelligence (BI) and business analytics (BA) processes and
passively as reference information that can be searched on- technologies are enabling health systems to improve their
line. Pharmacy informatics plays a key role in supporting performance and maintain their competitive advantage
and overseeing the core processes involving information and while creating an additional demand for clinical informat-
knowledge delivery throughout the clinical knowledge life ics professionals. Pharmacy informatics plays a significant
cycle. This role includes knowledge discovery and creation, role in all efforts surrounding medication management–
knowledge application and delivery, and knowledge asset related BI and BA activities. Pharmacy informaticists’ un-
management. derstanding of basic software and database design, ability
to grasp the big picture, and functional knowledge of detail,
Knowledge Discovery and Creation. As technology-driven coupled with their analytical skills, create opportunities to
transactions for results, ordering, documentation, task com- develop evidence-driven answers for practice improvement
pletion, communication, and patient monitoring continue and performance questions, such as
to grow, so will the amount of data. Pharmacy informatics
plays a key role in analyzing these data for the purposes of • How are pharmacists performing in relation to cost,
understanding performance, evaluating processes, and re- quality, and service?
Automation and Information Technology–Statements 15
• How can pharmacists improve performance and safety • Educating, disseminating, and discussing: commu-
within and outside of their service lines? nicating effectively to students and other audiences
• How can pharmacy practice identify patients who are in multiple disciplines in persuasive written and oral
at risk for readmission? forms.
• How can pharmacy practice identify patients requiring
medication therapy management services?15,16 Leading and Managing Change. To ensure that HIT sys-
tems support safe and effective medication use, pharmacy
Pharmacy informatics roles and responsibilities in BI informaticists are expected to lead as well as manage the
and BA must include risks and changes associated with the development, imple-
mentation, safety, and use of systems that support medica-
• Ensuring data are standardized, structured, and mod- tion management. Their knowledge and skills in compre-
eled to support a data-driven BI and BA culture. hending and evaluating organizational culture, managing
• Creating effective analytics tools that allow for mul- change, working effectively in interdisciplinary teams, com-
tiple formats and layers of analysis, from summary municating, synthesizing user requirements, and articulating
reports on individual patient encounters to an entire HIT needs within the context of broad strategic goals allow
population of patients. them to play a significant role in
• Developing, maintaining, and ensuring the quality of
clinical, operational, and financial dashboards, score- • Leading health-system, professional, industry, regu-
cards, screening tools, and surveillance tools to guide latory, standards-setting, and governmental organiza-
the achievement of treatment and strategic goals. tions to sound conclusions regarding the use of tech-
• Driving analytics to the frontline by creating greater nology in medication management.
end-user accessibility to BI and BA tools. • Leading and managing the evaluation and communi-
• Monitoring the effectiveness of tools and information cation of the potential risks of a newly implemented
to deploy or further develop point-of-care or analytical technology and developing plans to mitigate potential
systems. hazards.