Informatics interventions

Informatics interventions can support or implement knowledge use by making data collection and analysis easier and faster; enhancing communication with new devices; improving educational projects through multifaceted, individualized programs; and providing clinical support through reminders, clinical decision support, and order entry systems. Electronic medical records (EMR), personal health records and other large clinical systems have data which can be analyzed to show evidence‐practice gaps and evaluate KT interventions. CDSSs are electronic systems that aid clinical decision making by generating patient‐specific assessments and recommendations through software algorithms that match individual patient data to a computerized knowledge database. CDSSs improve care by giving clinicians performance feedback on quality indicators, enabling them to identify and bridge their own practice gap. Future research is needed to assess the cost‐effectiveness of informatics KT interventions, the sustainability of their effects, their effects on patient outcomes and good assessment of the unintended consequences of these new tools.