Information Systems Assessment in Pathologic Anatomy Service - New Contributions in Information Systems and Technologies - page 186

Information Systems Assessment
in Pathologic Anatomy Service

Ana Novo, Júlio Duarte, Filipe Portela, António Abelha,
Manuel Filipe Santos, and José Machado

Algoritmi Research Centre, University of Minho, Portugal
[e-mail],{jduarte,abelha,jmac}@di.uminho.pt,
{cfp,mfs}@dsi.uminho.pt

Abstract. Information technologies changed the way of how the health
organizations work, contributing to their effectiveness, efficiency and
sustainability. Hospital Information Systems (HIS) are emerging on all of health
institutions, helping health professionals and patients. However, HIS are not
always implemented and used in the best way, leading to low levels of benefits
and acceptance by users of these systems. In order to mitigate this problem, it is
essential to take measures able to ensure if the HIS and their interfaces are
designed in a simple and interactive way. With this in mind, a study to measure
the user satisfaction and their opinion was made. It was applied the Technology
Acceptance Model (TAM) on a HIS implemented on various hospital centers
(AIDA), being used the Pathologic Anatomy Service. The study identified
weakness and strengths features of AIDA and it pointed some solutions to
improve the medical record.

Keywords: TAM, Hospital Information Systems, Technology Acceptance,
Technology Assessment, Pathologic Anatomy Service.

1 Introduction

In the health sector, the increased volume and complexity of medical information and
the constant search for the optimization of health care, spurred the introduction of
information systems in the several health units. These systems allow the processing,
storage and dissemination of information, assist the decision-making process,
contributing to reduce clinical errors and, consequently, to increase the quality of
services provided and user safety [1, 2]. However, the health units are represented
computationally by a set of heterogeneous systems. The communication between the
various hospital information systems is essential but very difficult to obtain. To
overcome this problem, the Artificial Intelligence Group at the University of Minho has
developed the Agency for Integration, Archive and Diffusion of Medical Information
(AIDA). AIDA enables the storage and management of clinical information, as well as
the communication and sharing of information, thus ensuring the success and
functionality inherent in Electronic Health Records (EHR) [3]. EHR is an asset in a
hospital environment, both for health professionals as for users and administrators.
Despite all the benefits associated with the EHR, the rate of adoption and acceptance of
information systems that guarantee is very low. Several causes have been identified for