Electronic Health Records (EHR) have become integral to quality care delivery in many specialties. In spite of the usefulness of the these tools, surgeons have been reluctant to incorporate EHR into their toolbox. IHQSE Faculty, Sarah Tevis, MD, is corresponding author of a viewpoint article published by JAMA Surgery that calls for surgeons to engage in electronic health record innovation to improve patient and clinician experience.

Secure messaging (SM) is becoming a common way for hospitalists to communicate, but most existing literature focuses on usage patterns and implementation science, without clear understanding of the benefits and challenges users may be encountering. IHQSE Faculty Michelle Knees, DO and team led a mixed methods study involving surveys and focus groups with hospitalists from 24 academic institutions, finding that, while SM enhances communication efficiency, it also increases multitasking, cognitive load, and alters interpersonal dynamics. The study underscores the need for clear institutional guidelines for SM use and emphasizes the importance of collaborating with frontline workers to improve communication practices.

A recent editorial penned by Madeline Higgins, MD and IHQSE director Jeff Glasheen, MD and IHQSE faculty member Sarah Tevis, MD explores the challenges with current patient safety data. Despite advances in medical care, patient safety remains a critical area of focus within healthcare given that many patients continue to experience harm. While patient safety has gradually improved over time, progress is limited by outdated data models that prevent measurement of the true burden of harm, and therefore reduces our ability to understand ongoing drivers and develop innovative solutions to improving patient safety. The authors call for a change in how we measure and track data related to patient safety.

Two IHQSE grantees, Drs. Christina Stuart and Robert Meguid, recently published findings of a retrospective cohort study evaluating the incidence and consequences of incidental perioperative hypothermia exposure in the thoracic surgery population. They found that more than 90% of patients undergoing robotic-assisted thoracic surgery lung resections experience some degree of inadvertent perioperative hypothermia and that patients that developed hypothermia had associated increased rates of 30-day morbidity and infectious complications. Based on these data, Drs. Stuart and Meguid were awarded an IHQSE Clinical Effectiveness and Patient Safety grant to study structured and interval-specific interventions aimed at decreasing rates of inadvertent perioperative hypothermia and subsequent complications. This interventional study concluded in June of 2024 and the results are being analyzed.