Evaluating and enhancing women’s health care quality through the Cerner transition
Principal Investigator
Kristen Gray, PhD, MS
Funding Source
VA Health Services Research & Development
Background
Electronic health record modernization (EHRM), during which VA will transition from its legacy electronic health record to the Cerner electronic health record nationwide, presents both opportunities and challenges to move VA forward in the provision of gender-specific care.
Design/Overview
Due to changes in EHRM timelines, this project has pivoted to focus on understanding women’s healthcare coordination processes and collaborating with partners in the VA’s Informatics and Computing Infrastructure (VINCI) and Primary Care Analytics Team (PCAT) to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on routine breast and cervical cancer screening for women Veterans.
Status
Data collection and analysis ongoing
Impact Statement
This study will provide tools and procedures for VA researchers and healthcare operations leaders to understand the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on routine cancer screening activities.
Barriers to External Mammogram Care Coordination and Exploration of Clinical Informatics Solutions
Principal Investigators
Kristen Gray, PhD, MS, Kristine Lynch, PhD
Funding
VA Health Services Research & Development
Background
A majority of VA facilities do not provide on-site mammography and therefore refer all mammograms to external (community) providers. Coordinating with external healthcare providers poses additional challenges, with few clinical or informatics tools available to support these unique care coordination steps.
Design/Overview
This project involves
- Qualitative interviews with staff at 7 VA facilities which refer all mammograms to outside (community) facilities.
- Annotation of 500 external (community) mammogram records from a national sample to characterize the availability, format, and location of essential mammogram data elements in the current health record.
Status
Data collection complete; analysis ongoing
Impact Statement
These activities lay the groundwork for processes or informatics tools in VA’s current electronic health record system as well as helping to understand how the VA’s transition to a new electronic health record system may affect external mammogram coordination.