Information Without Borders Conference 2016

When you arrive at the Dalhousie Student Union Building, follow the stairs to the second floor where you will find our Registration desk. Sign-in to the 2016 Information Without Borders Conference and receive your gift bag.

Once registered, enjoy a continental breakfast and visit our Silent Auction in the McInnes Room. Proceeds from our Silent Auction help to support future IWB Conferences.

Welcoming remarks will be made by the Information Without Borders Committee Co-Chairs, Tess Grynoch and Chantel Ridsdale.

Abstract:

The Canadian Health Information Management Association (CHIMA) was founded in 1942 to provide a forum for Health Information Management (HIM®) professionals to share their expertise. CHIMA’s federal charter was obtained in 1949. The Canadian College of Health Information Management (CCHIM) was federally chartered in 1972 to maintain the academic standards and professional certification of the HIM profession. Never has the quality of health care data been more important to ministries and the health care system across the country as it is today. It is imperative that the data captured is of the upmost quality. The health ministries and industry require and must have confidence in the data and information.
The CHIMA certified Health Information Management (HIM) profession is a nationally recognized and self regulated profession that is educated in all aspects of the science and lifecycle of health records; information management; data collection, coding, and classification systems; data analysis, interpretation and use.

Certified HIM professionals play an essential role in the health care system with a focus on the entire lifecycle of the health record of the population served by ministries of health across Canada. This includes the transition to and maintenance of the electronic health record (EHR), a focus on data quality, clinical coding, decision support, record completeness and accuracy. All of this expertise supports high quality and timely data and information for health care planning / delivery, decision making at all levels (clinical, administrative and financial) and the privacy, confidentiality and security of the health record in all mediums and formats. Certified HIM professionals are a key resource to the success of and a vital and valued team member of the health care system.
In 2009 and 2014, two pan-Canadian Health Informatics (HI) and Health Information Management (HIM) human resource sector studies were conducted.

Objectives of the HI/HIM 2014 Sector Study Report:
1. Estimate hiring requirements from 2014 to 2019
2. Identify HI and HIM professional roles at risk of human resource and skills shortage

The published studies conclude that there is a looming shortage of HIM professionals. The studies also show an alarming gap in skills required for today’s complex coding of clinical information and the development of standards for the HIM lifecycle that will support the implementation and maintenance of the EHR. The HIM human resource shortage and skills gap will create a crisis across Canada as each Province/Territory struggles to manage the ever increasing demand for more timely quality coded data, data analysis, interpretation and decision making. Canada is already experiencing a demand for more HIM professionals with the skill sets necessary for clinical coding and the successful implementation of the EHR.

"Information barriers in healthcare: challenges, solutions and future directions" by Tara Sampalli

Abstract:

Information systems and information exchange are considered key enablers to the delivery of care at all levels of the health care system. However, many challenges impede the use of information and knowledge in an effective, timely and meaningful way. Interoperability, reduced human resources and finances, adoption and change management, and privacy issues often create barriers and unnecessary boundaries for information sharing across systems, services and healthcare providers. Consequently, these challenges can lead to poor patient experiences of care and collaborative working environment specifically in the context of continuity of care, chronic disease management and multimorbidities and care transitions. Primary Health Care in Nova Scotia Health Authority has initiated several novel and small scale practical improvements to overcome these barriers to enhance patient experiences, health outcomes and collaborative environment for care teams. This talk will give an overview of the challenges in information and knowledge exchange, lessons learned, preliminary results from the initiatives launched in Primary Health Care.


"Digital Health in Action: Providing Information-centric Healthcare Services" by Dr. Samina Abidi

 Abstract: 

We present a semantic web enabled ecosystem—termed as IMPACT-AF—to computerize clinical guidelines using specialized ontologies and reasoning engines that integrate live patient data with computerized medical knowledge to generate patient-specific and knowledge-centric recommendations. Our work further extends decision support services to mobile devices through the implementation of mobile reasoning and notification engines. 

"Supporting Evidence-based Decision-making for Needs-based Health Systems Planning" by Dr. Annette Elliott Rose

Abstract: 

The purpose of this presentation is provide an overview of the research, evaluation and capacity building work of the World Health Organization/Pan-American Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Health Workforce Planning and Research in the School of Nursing at Dalhousie University.  Strategies for effective knowledge translation will be highlighted using examples of successful projects from the Collaborating Centre.

Nora will present her research related to the IWB 2016 topic, "Managing Health Information: Technologies and Strategies for the 21st Century."

Lunch will be served in the McInnes Room. During this session, graduate students will present posters related to the conference theme and to the wider field of Information Management. The Silent Auction will be open until the end of lunch.

Student Poster Competition

"Interface Design Models Based on Psychological Theories" by Ghdeer Tashkandi

Patient portals websites facilitate interaction between physicians and patients, empower and engage patients to participate in the decision making process [1]. Despite being useful tools, they frequently fail to realize their full potential due to usability issues related to user interface (UI) design. Poorly designed interfaces may lead to stress, confusion, frustration, mistranslation of knowledge, and eventual abandonment of the application [2]. Although, a UI can be designed using general UI design guidelines, it might not be tailored towards user’s perceptual and cognitive abilities, as well as health care needs. Such personalization can be achieved by integrating psychological theories that concentrate on users’ needs and cognition. User-centric (UC) model is concerned with understanding the users’ needs and the requirements needed to fulfill their goals [2,3]. Cognitive load (CL) model is based on the human short-term memory that might affect the one’s ability to memorize or complete a certain task, improve the productivity, usability, and benefit from the application [4,5]. The objective of this research is to combine UC and CL models in UI design of a patient portal application and study its impact on user’s satisfaction and experience. 


"Libraries, Search Engines, and the Deep Web: Barriers to Visibility" by Zoe Dickinson 


"Understanding the Profound in the Information Seeking Behaviour of a Christian Chaplain" by Domenic Rosati 

Abstract:

Health sciences librarians have employed a number of strategies to cope with the changing landscape of collection development, many of which have outward effects on their home institutions. There remains a need to define and measure these outward effects, as they could influence the longevity of both libraries and the institutions they serve. Most existing literature focuses on how collection development practices directly affect libraries, but little research explores the further ramifications of these practices on overall university performance and reputation rankings. The assessment framework presented in this study is designed to reveal whether there is any correlation between a library’s collection development practices, its library-institution relationship, and its home university’s prestige. The assessment framework has been developed specifically for Canadian health sciences libraries, but could be adapted to other academic libraries around the world. Once employed, the assessment framework could demonstrate how libraries and institutions can work together to promote prosperity for both organisations.

"Sharing of child health information over social media: A systematic evaluation of posts shared over social media about pediatric pain" by Michelle Tougas

Abstract:

Social media facilitates information exchange and is increasingly being turned to for health communication. With potential to impact health outcomes, there is need to understand what content is being shared, and how it is being interacted with. Little is known about online engagement with child health topics, particularly pediatric pain. The objectives were to 1) Systematically evaluate social media posts about pediatric pain; 2) Identify and categorize themes in social media posts; 3) Analyze user interactions within social media platforms. Twitter, Instagram and Facebook platforms were selected. The search strategy was iteratively tested. Twitter and Instagram were prospectively searched over two-weeks, Facebook was searched retrospectively. An emergent process developed the coding scheme used to manually categorize included posts. Netlytic, a social network analysis program analyzed interactions and network analysis across the social media platforms. Through a tested search, reliable screening and coding, this research feasibility established systematic evaluation of posts about pediatric pain shared over social media. Twitter and Facebook pages were primarily used for sharing knowledge and resources about child pain, whereas Instagram and Facebook groups were used for sharing personal child pain experiences. Social media posts across platforms demonstrated a mixture of positive and negative sentiments. Twitter seemed to facilitate the most interaction among users, little interaction was observed across the other platforms. This work can provide useful information about what and how child health content is shared over social media, as well guide development of strategies to enhance online engagement about child health.


"Telling our stories: making meaning of Indigenous health data in Canada" by Dr. Debbie Martin

Abstract:

Data tells stories. The stories that we decide to tell from data, says as much about who we are, as about the subject of those stories. Within Canada, there has been a longstanding history and legacy of using data to tell stories about Indigenous peoples, instead of stories that are by, for or with them. The resulting policy, programming, and service decisions, even when they may have stemmed from data arising from well-intentioned efforts, has had devastating and lingering effects. This presentation will discuss examples of historical misuses and misappropriations of data, and also present successful contemporary examples of Indigenous ownership and management of data.

Abstract:

The current health care system is costly and inefficient. The attempts that the governments have made have neither improved the situation nor achieved a reform. A national electronic health record (EHR) is an application of information technology into government functions that directly relate to all citizen’s lives and its social impacts exceed its technical impacts. The implementation of EHR requires federal leadership, a new interpretation of Canadian Health Act, and a culture that welcomes changes. The application of a national EHR will ensure that information control and monitor are at the federal level, which will catalyse competition, innovation, and more standardized performance evaluation. The debate on privacy and security in the online environment, the source of initial cost of implementation, and the objections from regions and citizens are the main obstacles, which will hinder the applications of strategies, such as cutting federal funding. Australia’s health care system is similar to Canada’s. However, Australia has managed to build a national EHR, which expects to generate $11.5 billion in the net direct benefits over the period of 2010-2015. The strategies of implementing Australian EHR, costs, and benefits can be used as references for Canada when implementing a national HER, which will initiate a transformation of health culture and achieve cost-efficiency, competition, and capacity. Only then Canadian health care will achieve reform. 

"Health Information in the 21st Century:  Opportunities and Challenges" by Dr. Robert Strang

Abstract:

Dr. Strang will discuss five evolving issues in health information; personal health records, precision medicine, advanced analytics information overload and credibility and population health assessment;  and provide perspectives from his professional and personal experiences.