A cancer care electronic medical record highly integrated into clinicians' workflow: users' attitudes pre-post implementation

The purpose was to study users' attitudes towards an electronic medical record (EMR) closely integrated into the clinicians' cancer care workflow. The EMR, implemented in an ambulatory cancer care centre, was designed as a care pathway information system providing real-time support to the coordination of shared care processes involving all the care personnel. Mixed method pre-post study design was used. The study population consisted of all care personnel. A survey measured the quality attributes of the EMR, the clinical information it produces, the perceived usefulness of the system for supporting clinical data management tasks and the perceived impacts in terms of access and quality of care. The survey shows that users' attitudes towards the EMR (response rate of 71%) measured after the go-live were positive ranging from 3.42 to 3.95 on a 5-point scale. Besides, the content analysis of 33 pre-post interviews revealed five main themes: magnitude of the changes caused by the EMR; its innovative potential; its positive benefits; an ongoing growth in users' expectancies; and the burden associated with the time required to operate the EMR. In sum, the study shows that users can largely apply innovative uses of information technologies that automate their clinical processes.