title: Evaluating health information technology in community-based settings: lessons learned.
abstract: Implementing health information technology (IT) at the community level is a national priority to help improve healthcare quality, safety, and efficiency. However, community-based organizations implementing health IT may not have expertise in evaluation. This study describes lessons learned from experience as a multi-institutional academic collaborative established to provide independent evaluation of community-based health IT initiatives. The authors' experience derived from adapting the principles of community-based participatory research to the field of health IT. To assist other researchers, the lessons learned under four themes are presented: (A) the structure of the partnership between academic investigators and the community; (B) communication issues; (C) the relationship between implementation timing and evaluation studies; and (D) study methodology. These lessons represent practical recommendations for researchers interested in pursuing similar collaborations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York 10065, USA. lmk2003@med.cornell.edu
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Kern
authors.forename: Jessica S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Ancker
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Abramson
authors.forename: Vaishali
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: Rina V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Dhopeshwarkar
authors.forename: Rainu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kaushal
mesh_terms: D003256:Community Participation; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D008490:Medical Informatics; D009518:New York