Project Title: Quantifying Clinical Team Social Network Influences on Care of Medically Complex Patients Using an Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Tremaine Williams, Ed.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics in the UAMS College of Medicine and an Assistant Dean for the UAMS Graduate School. As a formally-trained, organizational and training researcher, Dr. Williams’ research focuses on testing interventions addressing the organizational and behavioral determinants of clinical information quality to improve the design and usability of electronic health records through the application of social and behavioral science.
Dr. Williams’ KL2 project adds to the growing work expanding the focus on the primary care workforce and organizational factors that have been identified as influences on the outcomes of patients with multiple chronic conditions (MCCs). MCCs are associated with higher mortality rates, functional decline, and diminished quality of life when compared to those who have one or no chronic conditions. Nationally, 81% of Americans age 65 years and older and 50% of Americans age 45 to 65 have multiple chronic conditions. However, MCC prevalence in Arkansas has been ranked as the second highest of all 50 states among adults between the ages of 18 to 45. The state of MCCs not only poses a critical risk for individual health, but it is increasingly recognized as a risk to value-based care and population health due to the enormous care-related costs. With regard to spending, the top five percent of medically complex patients account for nearly 50 percent of the nation’s spending on health care. Dr. Williams’ project fuels intervention development by 1) determining how changes in the EMR information flow among primary care teams influence care outcomes of medically complex patients and 2) identifying residual EMR information flow needs of primary care teams in managing medically complex patients. Dr. Williams hopes to leverage the information gained from his project to improve the outcomes of medically complex patients and reduce the costs on the healthcare system.
Mentors:
Kevin W. Sexton, M.D., Associate Director Healthcare Analytics, Institute for Digital Health & Innovation, UAMS; Associate Chief Clinical Informatics Officer for Innovation, Research, and Entrepreneurship, UAMS; Associate Chief Medical Officer, UAMS; Associate Professor, Department of Surgery; Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics; Associate Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management
Thomas Powell, M.D., M.S., Assistant Professor & Director, Clinical Informatics Consultation, Department of Biomedical Informatics
Ahmad Baghal, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Director of AR-CDR, Department of Biomedical Informatics
Riley Lipschitz, M.D., Assistant Professor, Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine