Better Health

better_health@here.now was a project of the Association of American Medical Colleges to explore the ways that medical schools and teaching hospitals can best use information technology in biomedical research, education and health care, to improve the health of people and communities. This project involved two related tracks: better_health2010 and IAIMS: The Next Generation.

Better Health 2010 Report
The Better Health 2010 report (PDF, 32 pages) contains the recommendations from a multi-faceted activity of the AAMC designed to help medical schools and teaching hospitals make optimal use of information technology and the Internet to improve the health of people and communities.

Academic and health care organizations have been preparing for the Information Age for decades, building networks, installing computers, developing software and training staff and health professionals to be literate computer users. The widespread adoption of sound information management practices across academic and health care organizations is the key challenge of the next decade. Therefore recommendations are made in the following four areas:

• Optimize the health and health care of individuals and populations through best-practice information management.
• Enable continuous, life-long, performance-based learning.
• Create tools and resources to support discovery, innovation and dissemination of research results.
• Build and operate a robust information environment that simultaneously enables health care, fosters learning and advances science.

Within this report, scenarios of technology-enabled futures in health care, education, research and information management are presented. Although report emphasis is placed on the promise of the technology-enhanced information environment, the difficulty of achieving this future is not overlooked. The problems facing health organizations in achieving this technological goal are also addressed.

Appendicies:

1. the better_health@here.now Delphi Study (PDF, 3 pages)
2. better_health2010 Opinion Poll (PDF, 4 pages)
3. Recommendations and Goals (XSL)
4. better_health2010 Web-based Polls (PDF, 8 pages)
5. Glossary Terms (PDF, 4 pages)

IAIMS Report -The Next Generation

For nearly twenty years, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) has offered grants designed help academic health sciences centers plan and implement organizational and technological mechanisms for managing the knowledge of medicine. The goal of the Integrated Academic (Advanced) Information Management Systems (IAIMS) program that began in 1984.

Much has changed in the information landscape since the NLM awarded the first IAIMS grants. To understand these changes in Fall 1998, the National Library of Medicine contracted with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) to undertake IAIMS: The Next Generation (IAIMS:TNG). This study examined the effects of the IAIMS grant program on current information management practices in academic health sciences centers. Site visits, expert commentary, interviews, literature review, and focus sessions were primary mechanisms for studying the present and forecasting future needs.

The final report of the IAIMS:TNG study, Next-Generation IAIMS: Binding Knowledge to Effective Action (PDF, 54 pages), recommends several approaches for responding to the information management challenge that faces AHSCs today. Chief among these is the recommendation that NLM refocus its existing IAIMS grant program. The report outlines research agendas in the areas of health care, health professional education, biomedical and clinical research, and presents an IAIMS agenda of information management problems. This final report of the IAIMS:TNG study provides:

• an assessment of lessons learned from IAIMS;
• an informed projection of the information infrastructure needed in health care organizations in the coming decade;
• a design for a next-generation IAIMS program;
• recommended roles for public and private agencies, academic health sciences centers, associations and others.

Appendices:

1. The NLM IAIMS program, grant awards 1984-present (PDF, 1 page)
2. The IAIMS:TNG Review Panel (PDF, 3 pages) and Biographical Sketches (PDF, 9 pages)
3. The IAIMS:TNG
   • study visit (PDF, 2 pages)
   • framework (PDF, 2 pages)
   • interview topics (PDF, 2 pages)
4. The IAIMS:TNG baseline assessment checklists - current and future state (PDF, 7 pages)
5. The IAIMS:TNG study visit findings:
   • Lessons Learned (PDF, 17 pages)
   • Institutional Success Factors (PDF, 10 pages)
   • Next Generation (PDF, 8 pages)
   • Current Challenges (PDF, 2 pages)
6. IAIMS:TNG Knowledge Base (PDF, 37 pagesB)
7. better_health2010 Desirable Futures:
   • Health Care in 2010 (PDF, 3 pages)
   • Research in 2010 (PDF, 2 pages), Education in 2010 (PDF, 3 pages)
   • Knowledge Management in 2010 (PDF, 2 pages)
8. Results from b_h2010 IAIMS polls, June 2000
9. IAIMS Poll: User Services, Respondent Roles (PDF, 1 page)
   • Question 1 (PDF, 1 page)
   • Question 2 (PDF, 1 page)
   • Question 3 (PDF, 1 page)
   • Question 4 (PDF, 1 pages)
   • Question 5 (PDF, 1 page)
   • Question 6 (PDF, 1 page)
10. IAIMS Poll: Information Environment (PDF, 1 page)
    • Question 1 (PDF, 1 page)
    • Question 2 (PDF, 1 page)
    • Question 3 (PDF, 1 page)
    • Question 4 (PDF, 1 page)
    • Question 5 (PDF, 1 page)
    • Question 6 (PDF, 1 page)
11. Acknowledgements (PDF, 2 pages)

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