The Intersection of Safety, Quality, and Informatics: Solving Problems in Pediatrics









Srinivasan Suresh, MD, MBA, FAAP, Editor
Providing safe and high-quality care to infants and children is always a key priority for pediatricians and health care organizations. Although “safety” has been one of the domains of health care quality, thousands of medical errors caused by the health care system itself continue to occur. Over the past few years, information technology has come to the forefront not only to improve disease specific outcomes, but also to facilitate the measurement and implementation of safe and high-quality care. Focused research in children has shown that problems and solutions in pediatric safety and quality have several unique aspects. The science of informatics (data plus meaning), as it relates to pediatrics, has to target population health and simultaneously address the rising costs associated with implementation and maintenance of computerized systems for care coordination, while at the same time contribute toward excellence in patient care. The tools available to measure, standardize, and peer-benchmark safety and quality metrics need to be refined as we drive toward the “triple aim” (better health, better health care at lower cost).


Some of the exciting areas that fall under the intersection of pediatric safety, quality, and informatics are the application of big data and predictive analytics, addressing barriers to wider usage of clinical pathways, harnessing the power of medical device technologies, and the growing role of telemedicine. There should be continued emphasis in educating pediatric residents and fellows on the principles of pediatric quality and safety. The modern electronic medical record has become an indispensable component of clinical research.


Given the reach and readership of Pediatric Clinics of North America , this issue on “Quality of Care and Information Technology” strives to address the above areas as well as analyze current challenges in the realm of pediatric safety, quality, and informatics. The authors, who are experts in various pediatric care settings (hospital medicine, intensive care, emergency medicine, clinical informatics, nursing, and quality improvement research), provide an overview to widen the knowledge base of the practicing pediatrician and help them apply the content of these articles to their everyday practice.


Only gold members can continue reading. Log In or Register to continue

Related posts:

  1. Quality of Care and Information Technology
  2. Population Health and Pediatric Informatics
  3. Advanced Technology in Pediatric Intensive Care Units
  4. ABCs of Safety and Quality for the Pediatric Resident and Fellow

Stay updated, free articles. Join our Telegram channel
Tags:
Oct 2, 2017 | Posted by in PEDIATRICS | Comments Off on The Intersection of Safety, Quality, and Informatics: Solving Problems in Pediatrics

Full access? Get Clinical Tree
Get Clinical Tree app for offline access