Human Factors and Organizational Issues Section Synopsis IMIA Yearbook 2021.

OBJECTIVE: To select the best papers that made original and high impact contributions in the area of human factors and organizational issues in biomedical informatics in 2020. METHODS: A rigorous extraction process based on queries from Web of Science® and PubMed/Medline was conducted to identify the scientific contributions published in 2020 that address human factors and organizational issues in biomedical informatics. The screening of papers on titles and abstracts independently by the two section editors led to a total of 1,562 papers. These papers were discussed for a selection of 12 finalist papers, which were then reviewed by the two section editors, two chief editors, and by three external reviewers from internationally renowned research teams. RESULTS: The query process resulted in 12 papers that reveal interesting and rigorous methods and important studies in human factors that move the field forward, particularly in clinical informatics and emerging technologies such as brain-computer interfaces. This year three papers were clearly outstanding and help advance in the field. They provide examples of applying existing frameworks together in novel and highly illuminating ways, showing the value of theory development in human factors. Emerging themes included several which discussed physician burnout, mobile health, and health equity. Those concerning the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) were included as part of that section. CONCLUSION: The selected papers make important contributions to human factors and organizational issues, expanding and deepening our knowledge of how to apply theory and applications of new technologies in health.

COVID-19 reveals the urgent need to strengthen nursing informatics competencies: a view from Peru.

The COVID-19 pandemic requires an urgent action to transform health-care delivery and to promote research and capacity-building nursing programs. Specifically, many countries at the global level have described nursing informatics as an essential competence for nurse professionals. In Peru, nursing personnel represents the largest health workforce group and nursing informatics is still emerging, but the field appear to hold much promise. In this sense, the Peruvian Ministry of Health (MoH) defined in 2020 the core nursing competences, which included a technology and innovation domain. The competence established to apply scientifically based technology and innovation to improve the processes or health service resources. The minimum competencies established by the MoH were as follows: to carry out innovations in processes or resources in their different professional performance areas, to creatively adapt technology in different areas of professional performance, to make rational and ethical use of health technologies with focus on new developments that will be evaluated and applied critically, and to manage information and communication technologies, and health information systems, with emphasis on telehealth (i.e. telemedicine, telecare management, tele-education, and tele-training). Besides the nursing competences defined by the MoH is a good starting point, this special contribution discusses the urgent need to strengthen nursing informatics competencies in Peru.

Patient Empowerment During the COVID-19 Pandemic by Ensuring Safe and Fast Communication of Test Results: Implementation and Performance of a Tracking System.

BACKGROUND: Overcoming the COVID-19 crisis requires new ideas and strategies for online communication of personal medical information and patient empowerment. Rapid testing of a large number of subjects is essential for monitoring and delaying the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in order to mitigate the pandemic's consequences. People who do not know that they are infected may not stay in quarantine and, thus, risk infecting others. Unfortunately, the massive number of COVID-19 tests performed is challenging for both laboratories and the units that conduct throat swabs and communicate the results. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to reduce the communication burden for health care professionals. We developed a secure and easy-to-use tracking system to report COVID-19 test results online that is simple to understand for the tested subjects as soon as these results become available. Instead of personal calls, the system updates the status and the results of the tests automatically. This aims to reduce the delay when informing testees about their results and, consequently, to slow down the virus spread. METHODS: The application in this study draws on an existing tracking tool. With this open-source and browser-based online tracking system, we aim to minimize the time required to inform the tested person and the testing units (eg, hospitals or the public health care system). The system can be integrated into the clinical workflow with very modest effort and avoids excessive load to telephone hotlines. RESULTS: The test statuses and results are published on a secured webpage, enabling regular status checks by patients; status checks are performed without the use of smartphones, which has some importance, as smartphone usage diminishes with age. Stress tests and statistics show the performance of our software. CTest is currently running at two university hospitals in Germany-University Hospital Ulm and University Hospital Tübingen-with thousands of tests being performed each week. Results show a mean number of 10 (SD 2.8) views per testee. CONCLUSIONS: CTest runs independently of existing infrastructures, aims at straightforward integration, and aims for the safe transmission of information. The system is easy to use for testees. QR (Quick Response) code links allow for quick access to the test results. The mean number of views per entry indicates a reduced amount of time for both health care professionals and testees. The system is quite generic and can be extended and adapted to other communication tasks.

Digital Health during COVID-19: Informatics Dialogue with the World Health Organization.

BACKGROUND: On December 16, 2020 representatives of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA), a Non-Governmental Organization in official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO), along with its International Academy for Health Sciences Informatics (IAHSI), held an open dialogue with WHO Director General (WHO DG) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus about the opportunities and challenges of digital health during the COVID-19 global pandemic. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this paper is to report the outcomes of the dialogue and discussions with more than 200 participants representing different civil society organizations (CSOs). METHODS: The dialogue was held in form of a webinar. After an initial address of the WHO DG, short presentations by the panelists, and live discussions between panelists, the WHO DG and WHO representatives took place. The audience was able to post questions in written. These written discussions were saved with participants' consent and summarized in this paper. RESULTS: The main themes that were brought up by the audience for discussion were: (a) opportunities and challenges in general; (b) ethics and artificial intelligence; (c) digital divide; (d) education. Proposed actions included the development of a roadmap based on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: Decision making by policy makers needs to be evidence-based and health informatics research should be used to support decisions surrounding digital health, and we further propose next steps in the collaboration between IMIA and WHO such as future engagement in the World Health Assembly.

Medical and health informatics services during and after the COVID-19 pandemic should be virtual, tailored, responsive and interactive: a case study in Belgium.

This is part of a new series in this regular feature regarding trends in the provision of information by health science libraries. By sharing expertise and drawing together relevant trends the series intends to serve as a road map for both health science librarians and health informatics professionals. This article shows how a medical and biomedical research library changed practices, and reassessed user needs for the COVID-19 emergency. Discusses changes to online education (and collaborative working) to provide user-friendly services, researcher support tailored to need and re-visioning library space. J.M.

Availability of COVID-19 Information from National and International Aesthetic Surgery Society Websites.

BACKGROUND: National and international aesthetic surgery society websites are an important source of information for patients and aesthetic surgeons. The current COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented global health crisis. The aim of this study was to assess the information available on national and international aesthetic surgery society websites on the current pandemic of COVID-19. METHODS: National and international aesthetic surgery society websites were assessed with regard to COVID-19 information. RESULTS: Thirty-one per cent of nations had aesthetic surgery society websites. Twenty-two per cent of national society websites had a specific COVID-19 section. Seventeen per cent of these websites had COVID-19-specific guidelines available; of these websites with guidelines, 77% had a specific COVID-19 section advising to provide only urgent or emergent care and 46% provided their sovereign state's directives to provide only urgent or emergent care. Two international aesthetic surgery society websites had COVID-19-specific guidelines, and one of the two had significant educational resources. CONCLUSION: The availability of COVID-19 clinical guidelines and patient information sheets on national plastic surgery society websites is sparse. In contrast, one international society website carefully analysed national and international recommendations and guidelines and made general recommendations for its members with regularly updated resources. This study suggests that improvement and increase in COVID-19 information provided by many national aesthetic surgery society websites may be improved by links to the ISAPS website. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE IV: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266.