2004 OPEN FORUM Abstracts
Is Respiratory Care Informatics a Legitimate Area of Study within the Science of Respiratory Care?
Constance
Mussa, M.S., RRT - Metropolitan Jewish Geriatric Center,
Brooklyn, New York, Yedidyah Langsam, PhD - Department of Computer &
Information Science, Brooklyn College of CUNY, Brooklyn, NY
BACKGROUND: Advances in information technology have accelerated
the growth of
informatics to the extent that informatics has now become an
important field of study in our society. While there are many
variations on the definition of informatics, the key component of all
such definitions is that informatics involves a combination of
computer science and information science. When used in conjunction
with the name of a discipline, the terminology denotes an application
of computer science and information science to the management and
processing of data, information and knowledge in the named
discipline 1.
To date, the only healthcare groups that have integrated informatics
as a legitimate discipline within their respective professions are
physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and dentists. The allied health
professions such as physical therapy, respiratory care, occupational
therapy, nutrition and dietetic sciences, and speech and hearing
sciences, to name a few, do not seem to be actively involved in the science of
medical informatics.
DESIGN,
SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Two different questionnaires (one for
respiratory care managers and the other for staff therapists)
designed to determine the strengths, weaknesses, and usefulness of
existing respiratory care information systems were distributed to 50
respiratory therapists. Survey participants were selected using a
combination of purposive and snowball sampling. Of the 50
questionnaires distributed, 26 responses were obtained.
MEASUREMENTS
AND RESULTS: Participants completed a paper-and-pencil survey
assessing professional activities (business functions), information
needs and uses of respiratory therapists, work flow (data and process
flow), communication, data storage and retrieval, system utility, and
decision support. Of the 26 participants, 19 were staff therapists
and 7 were managers. 85% of all the respiratory therapists surveyed
work in hospitals, 50% care for patients ranging in age from neonatal
to geriatric, and 50% care for adult and geriatric patients only. 29%
of the respiratory care managers surveyed said that data storage is
paper-based and 71% said that data storage is a combination of both
paper files and computer files. 53% of the staff therapists surveyed
said that data storage is paper-based, 26% said that data storage is
a combination of paper and computer files, and 21% said that data
storage is strictly computer-based. 28% of the respiratory care
managers said that their existing information system is very useful,
14% said that it is useful, 43% said that it is somewhat useful, and
15% said that it is not useful. For the staff therapists, 16% said
that their existing information system is very useful, 26% said that
it is useful, 47% said that it is somewhat useful, and 11% said that
it is not useful. All therapists (managers and staff) surveyed said
that they rely on colleagues, books, and manuals for decision support
rather than on computerized decision support systems.
CONCLUSIONS: The information systems used by respiratory therapists
appear to have
marginal utility and have problems with data storage and retrieval.
This is due to the prevalence of information systems that do not
employ computerized databases and computerized databases that are not
equipped with a full-scale database management system (DBMS). This is
a significant finding since accepted computer science database theory
asserts that an inadequate data storage and retrieval system
compromises data integrity and consistency of data. Furthermore,
inadequate data storage and retrieval results in data redundancy and
ultimately, inaccurate information. Development of data models
specific to the respiratory care profession may also be necessary to
build databases with conceptual schemas that accurately reflect the
professional activities of respiratory therapists. More rigorous,
scientific studies need to be done to validate the accuracy of these
findings.
11.
www. nih.gov/ninr/research/vol