Clinical Information Systems as the Backbone of a Complex Information Logistics Process: Findings from the Clinical Information Systems Perspective for 2016

Transforming Clinical Information Systems: Empowering Healthcare through Telemedicine, Data Science, and Artificial Intelligence Applications

OBJECTIVE

In this synopsis, the editors of the Clinical Information Systems (CIS) section of the IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics overview recent research and propose a selection of best papers published in 2022 in the CIS field.

METHODS

The editors follow a systematic approach to gather relevant articles and select the best papers for the section. This year, they updated the query to incorporate the topic of telemedicine and removed search terms related to geographic information systems. The revised query resulted in a larger number of identified papers, necessitating the appointment of a third section editor to handle the increased workload. The editors narrowed the initial pool of articles to 15 candidate papers through a multi-stage selection process. At least seven independent reviews were collected for each candidate paper, and a selection meeting with the IMIA Yearbook editorial board led to the final selection of the best papers for the CIS section.

RESULTS

The query was carried out in mid-January 2023 and retrieved a deduplicated result set of 5,206 articles from 1,500 journals. This year, 15 papers were nominated as candidates, and four were finally selected as the best papers in the CIS section.Including telemedicine in the query resulted in a substantial increase in the number of papers found. The analysis highlights the growing convergence between clinical information systems and telemedicine, with mobile health (mHealth) technologies and data science applications gaining prominence. The selected candidate papers emphasize the practical impact of research efforts, focusing on patient-centric outcomes and benefits, including intelligent mobile health monitoring systems and AI-assisted decision-making in healthcare.

CONCLUSIONS

Looking ahead, the field of CIS is expected to continue evolving, driven by advances in telemedicine, mHealth technologies, data science, and AI integration, leading to more efficient, patient-oriented, and intelligent healthcare systems and overall improvement of global healthcare outcomes.

"All Quiet on the Western Front" - Clinical Information Systems Research in the Year 2021

OBJECTIVES

In this synopsis, we give an overview of recent research and propose a selection of best papers published in 2021 in the field of Clinical Information Systems (CIS).

METHOD

As CIS section editors, we annually apply a systematic process to retrieve articles for the IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics. For eight years now, we use the same query to find relevant publications in the CIS field. Each year we retrieve more than 2,400 papers which we categorize in a multi-pass review to distill a preselection of up to 15 candidate papers. External reviewers and yearbook editors then assess the selected candidate papers. Based on the review results, the IMIA Yearbook editorial board chooses up to four best publications for the section at a selection meeting. To get a comprehensive overview of the content of the retrieved articles, we use text mining and term co-occurrence mapping techniques.

RESULTS

We carried out the query in mid-January 2022 and retrieved a deduplicated result set of 2,688 articles from 1,062 different journals. This year, we nominated ten papers as candidates and finally selected two of them as the best papers in the CIS section. As in the previous years, the content analysis of the articles revealed the broad spectrum of topics covered by CIS research, but - on the other side - no real innovations or new upcoming research trends. However, the significant impact of COVID-19 on CIS research was observable also this year.

CONCLUSIONS

The trends in CIS research, as seen in recent years, continue to be observable. The content analysis revealed nothing really new in the CIS domain. What was very visible was the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which still effects our lives and also CIS.

Clinical Information Systems Research in the Pandemic Year 2020

Objective: In this synopsis, we give an overview of recent research and propose a selection of best papers published in 2020 in the field of Clinical Information Systems (CIS).

Method: As CIS section editors, we annually apply a systematic process to retrieve articles for the International Medical Informatics Association Yearbook of Medical Informatics. For seven years now, we use the same query to find relevant publications in the CIS field. Each year we retrieve more than 2,400 papers which we categorize in a multi-pass review to distill a preselection of 15 candidate papers. External reviewers and yearbook editors then assess the selected candidate papers. Based on the review results, the IMIA Yearbook editorial board chooses up to four best publications for the section at a selection meeting. To get an overview of the content of the retrieved articles, we use text mining and term co-occurrence mapping techniques.

Results: We carried out the query in mid-January 2021 and retrieved a deduplicated result set of 2,787 articles from 1,135 different journals. We nominated 15 papers as candidates and finally selected four of them as the best papers in the CIS section. As in the previous years, the content analysis of the articles revealed the broad spectrum of topics covered by CIS research. Thus, this year we could observe a significant impact of COVID-19 on CIS research.

Conclusions: The trends in CIS research, as seen in recent years, continue to be observable. What was very visible was the impact of the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which has affected not only our lives but also CIS.

Trends in Clinical Information Systems Research in 2019

Objective : To give an overview of recent research and to propose a selection of best papers published in 2019 in the field of Clinical Information Systems (CIS).

Method : Each year, we apply a systematic process to retrieve articles for the CIS section of the IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics. For six years now, we use the same query to find relevant publications in the CIS field. Each year we retrieve more than 2,000 papers. As CIS section editors, we categorize the retrieved articles in a multi-pass review to distill a pre-selection of 15 candidate best papers. Then, Yearbook editors and external reviewers assess the selected candidate best papers. Based on the review results, the IMIA Yearbook Editorial Committee chooses the best papers during the selection meeting. We used text mining, and term co-occurrence mapping techniques to get an overview of the content of the retrieved articles.

Results : We carried out the query in mid-January 2020 and retrieved a de-duplicated result set of 2,407 articles from 1,023 different journals. This year, we nominated 14 papers as candidate best papers, and three of them were finally selected as best papers in the CIS section. As in previous years, the content analysis of the articles revealed the broad spectrum of topics covered by CIS research.

Conclusions : We could observe ongoing trends, as seen in the last years. Patient benefit research is in the focus of many research activities, and trans-institutional aggregation of data remains a relevant field of work. Powerful machine-learning-based approaches, that use readily available data now often outperform human-based procedures. However, the ethical perspective of this development often comes too short in the considerations. We thus assume that ethical aspects will and should deliver much food for thought for future CIS research.

Managing Complexity. From Documentation to Knowledge Integration and Informed Decision Findings from the Clinical Information Systems Perspective for 2018

Objective : To summarize recent research and to propose a selection of best papers published in 2018 in the field of Clinical Information Systems (CIS).

Method : Each year a systematic process is carried out to retrieve articles for the CIS section of the IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics and to select a set of pest papers for the section. The same query as in the last five years was used. The retrieved articles were categorized in a multi-pass review carried out by the two section editors. The final selection of candidate papers was then peer-reviewed by Yearbook editors and external reviewers. Based on the review results the best papers were then chosen at the selection meeting with the IMIA Yearbook editorial board. Text mining, and term co-occurrence mapping techniques were again used to get an overview of the content of the retrieved articles.

Results : The query was carried out in mid-January 2019, yielding a consolidated, deduplicated result set of 2,264 articles which had been published in 957 different journals. This year, we nominated twelve papers as candidates and three of them were finally selected as best papers in the CIS section. Again, the content analysis of the articles revealed the broad spectrum of topics which is covered by CIS research.

Conclusions : We could observe ongoing trends from our 2017 analysis. The patient increasingly moves in the focus of the research activities and trans-institutional aggregation of data is still an important field of work. The move to use patient and other clinical data directly for the patient and to support data driven process management, the move away from clinical documentation to patient-focused knowledge generation and support of informed decision, is gaining momentum by the application of new or already known but, due to technological advances, now applicable methodological approaches.

On the Way to Close the Loop in Information Logistics: Data from the Patient - Value for the Patient

OBJECTIVE

 To summarize recent research and to propose a selection of best papers published in 2017 in the field of Clinical Information Systems (CIS).

METHOD

 Each year a systematic process is carried out to retrieve articles and to select a set of best papers for the CIS section of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) Yearbook of Medical Informatics. The query aiming at identifying relevant publications in the field of CIS was refined by the section editors during the last years. For three years now, the query is stable. It comprises search terms from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus as well as additional free text search terms from PubMed and Web of Science^®. The retrieved articles were categorized in a multi-pass review carried out by the two section editors. The final selection of candidate papers was then peer-reviewed by Yearbook editors and external reviewers. Based on the review results, the best papers were then selected by the IMIA Yearbook editorial board. Text mining, and term co-occurrence mapping techniques were used to get an overview on the content of the retrieved articles.

RESULTS

 The query was carried out in mid-January 2018, yielding a consolidated result set of 2,255 articles which had been published in 939 different journals. Out of them, 15 papers were nominated as candidate best papers and four of them were finally selected as best papers in the CIS section. Again, the content analysis of the articles revealed the broad spectrum of topics which is covered by CIS research.

CONCLUSIONS

 Modern clinical information systems serve as backbone for a very complex, trans-institutional information logistics process. Data that is produced by, documented in, shared via, organized in, presented by, and stored within clinical information systems is more and more reused for multiple purposes. We found a lot of examples showing the benefits of such data reuse with various novel approaches implemented to tackle the challenges of this process. We also found that the patient moves in the focus of interest of CIS research. So the loop of information logistics begins to close: data from the patients is used to produce value for the patients.