Viewpoint

The Value of Information

By Morgan Passiment
Director of Information Resources Outreach and Liaison, AAMC

One of the first projects the GIR undertook after its inception was the development of a tool to provide benchmarking and best practices measures for the management of information resources in academic medical centers. This survey provides a tool for individual schools to compare practices and expenditures on IT resources that are managed at the medical school level. Schools can use this resource to select cohorts and compare various aspects of their organizations. It is also helpful in identifying members that provide certain services.

Some highlights from the 2005 survey:

• The median reported expenditures for central information technology increased 10% in 2005 over 2004.
• Security, funding, and internal organizational issues continue to be the top three concerns of medical school technology service providers.
• The most widely adopted security strategies are a requirement for authentication to access wired and wireless networks, mandatory periodic expiration of authentication credentials, and some form of intrusion detection system.
• In biomedical computing, the private sector is increasing at a slower rate than the public sector (approximately 3% vs. 10%); however, spending levels for private schools are more than double that of public schools.

Other GIR Data Resources
The GIR also conducts topical surveys to assess member awareness, interest and/or participation in areas of relevance to the management of information resources. These surveys cover a broad range of topics including educational systems, security officers, EHR, management and informatics. The following are some examples.

Medical School Objectives Project (MSOP II) for Medical Informatics
With a growing momentum towards the implementation of electronic health records and a national recognition of the importance of information technology in the health care environment, the GIR was interested in understanding how schools were educating future physicians to work in these complex environments. This survey examined the extent to which the teaching and learning of medical informatics skills and knowledge had been integrated into medical education programs across the country. This survey was conducted in early 2005 and again in 2006. Interestingly there was little change.

Electronic Health Record (EHR) Inventory
In February 2005, the GIR deployed a survey to assess the level of implementation for specific EHR functionalities. For purposes of this survey, Electronic Health Record (EHR) was defined as a system having most if not all of the core components as defined by the Institute of Medicine: Health information and data, Results management, Order entry/management, Decision support, Electronic communication and connectivity, Patient support, Administrative processes, and Reporting and population health management. Members were asked to indicate their level of implementation for the identified functionalities. At the time the survey was deployed, the federal government was just beginning to push electronic medical records to improve quality of care as a response to the "Quality Chasm" report. At that time most respondents were in the planning stages for a variety of functionalities, but very few had robust systems.

Most recently, the GIR has begun to distribute a series of short surveys to assess use of specific technologies, management strategies, and gauge interest in specific topics. If you have a topic you would like to submit, please let us know.

To get more information about these data resources available to GIR members, login to the GIR Members site. There you will find full reports and tools for your own analysis.