Tranzo Pearl | Data use for care improvement

How can we analyze but, most importantly, improve care processes and outcomes? One way to do this is by using collected data from existing ICT systems such as an Electronic Patient File. It is important not only to look at medical aspects, but also to consider the quality of life before, during, and after treatment from the patient's perspective.

At the Academic Collaborative Center healthcare providers and systems, Tamara Broughton, science practitioner from the Meander Medical Center, is doing research on this under the supervision of Prof. Anne Marie Weggelaar. As quality and improvement advisor at Meander Medical Center, she is researching how data can contribute to improvements in care. ICT&health wrote(new window) a good article about this.

Tamara Broughton: "The step from data collecting and visualizing to actually improving it is currently still a big step. I'm going to spend the next few years exploring how we can improve on that."

Read the entire interview from Meander Medical Center here.(new window)

Many hospitals today work with multidisciplinary groups of healthcare professionals, who work together to improve care based on data about their processes and outcomes. In various work formats, they discuss medical outcomes with each other, such as data on complications and survival rates, but also quality of life and process information such as waiting times are discussed. This research can, therefore, be used to improve processes in other healthcare organizations and can contribute to a transformation of the healthcare system that benefits both professionals and patients.

Guidelines Institutional work

Tamara uses the Institutional Work perspective, a sociological and organizational approach, for her research. Institutional Work focuses on how (groups of) individuals influence everyday practices, for example, by creating or changing rules, norms, and values together, using their professional influence, communication patterns, or use of symbols. In this perspective, a lot of attention is paid to people’s influence, but Tamara particularly investigates how "things" also exert influence and thereby change daily practices. One example is the development of the national COVID-19 guidelines (called the code black guideline and COVID-19 guideline). Her research shows that national stakeholders (such as the president of the professional Association of Intensive Care Physicians or the minister) also used the development of these guidelines to influence things. For example, the guidelines were used by the Association of Intensive Care Physicians used the guidelines to showcase the unique knowledge of intensive care physicians. So, Tamara argues in her article that it is important in the Institutional Work perspective to look not only at how people influence each other, but also how "things" play a role in this, such as guidelines, products, and mindsets.

For more information about this study, contact Tamara Broughton(new window).