Supporting Health Consumers with Algorithms (that they may never even notice!)

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Speaker: Jim Warren

Affiliation: The University of Auckland

Time: Monday 23/04/2012 from 14:00 to 15:00

Venue: Access Grid UWS. Presented from Campbelltown (26.1.50), accessible from Parramatta (EB.1.32) and Penrith (Y239).

Abstract:

One route to improving the sustainability of health systems is to empower (some would say 'activate') health consumers to a greater, and less passive, role in their own care. To some extent this is happening through the advent of the Web and the popularity of health information Web searching. But there are opportunities for cleverly embedded algorithms to support the health consumer to better fulfil their role in the 21st century health system. We present three examples through University of Auckland research that automates:

1. detection of suboptimal chronic condition management through prescribing and dispensing patterns, particularly around poor medication adherence;
2. classification of consumer health Web pages on fine-level attributes such as author credential, disease stage and 'medical' versus 'supportive' tone; and
3. addition of hyperlinks to relevant and readable material in difficult 'medicalese' clinical documents.

The talk closes with reflections on the directions in IT support for health consumers.

Biography: Jim Warren is Chair in Health Informatics at the University of Auckland, holding a joint position in Computer Science and Population Health. He has over 20 years research experience in health IT, with a particular interest in systems to support both patients and providers in better management of long-term conditions. Prior to commencing with University of Auckland in 2005 he worked for the University of South Australia for 12 years. He has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and PhD in Information Systems from the University of Maryland. He is the recent past chair of Health Informatics New Zealand, the member organisation of IMIA for New Zealand. His research group, National Institute for Health Innovation has been closely involved in support and evaluation of New Zealand's national Health IT Plan.