AHRQ: 'Disappointing results' often seen in health IT deployment

Citing "disappointing results" observed often in implementing health information technology, HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is looking to evaluate the work-flow toolkit it created for clinical practices to solve problems related to health IT deployment.

AHRQ funded development of the Workflow Assessment for Health IT Toolkit in 2008. The kit is designed to promote a better understanding of how health IT issues affect workflow in ambulatory care at several stages of health IT adoption: determining system requirements, selecting a vendor, preparing for implementation, and using the newly implemented technology. The goal of AHRQ's newly proposed project is to find out how useful clinical practices find the toolkit.

In a notice published in Friday's Federal Register, the agency asks the Office of Management and Budget to approve its request, which would include conducting field assessments of the toolkit in 10 small- and medium-size clinical practices. The evaluation also would include gathering feedback from two health IT regional extension centers that provide support to some of the practices.

"The evaluation will address the issues of system validation as classically defined in software engineering: determining whether the software or system actually meets the requirements of the user to perform the relevant tasks," the notice said.

AHRQ noted a "growing consensus that deployment of health IT has often had disappointing results," and emphasized a need for greater attention to sociotechnical issues and problems associated with modeling workflow. Overall, the information-collection project is expected to cost the federal government about $793,456. AHRQ will accept comments on the proposal through May 8.