title: Public health nurse perceptions of Omaha System data visualization.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Electronic health records (EHRs) provide many benefits related to the storage, deployment, and retrieval of large amounts of patient data. However, EHRs have not fully met the need to reuse data for decision making on follow-up care plans. Visualization offers new ways to present health data, especially in EHRs. Well-designed data visualization allows clinicians to communicate information efficiently and effectively, contributing to improved interpretation of clinical data and better patient care monitoring and decision making. Public health nurse (PHN) perceptions of Omaha System data visualization prototypes for use in EHRs have not been evaluated.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To visualize PHN-generated Omaha System data and assess PHN perceptions regarding the visual validity, helpfulness, usefulness, and importance of the visualizations, including interactive functionality.
  
  
  METHODS
  Time-oriented visualization for problems and outcomes and Matrix visualization for problems and interventions were developed using PHN-generated Omaha System data to help PHNs consume data and plan care at the point of care. Eleven PHNs evaluated prototype visualizations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall PHNs response to visualizations was positive, and feedback for improvement was provided.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrated the potential for using visualization techniques within EHRs to summarize Omaha System patient data for clinicians. Further research is needed to improve and refine these visualizations and assess the potential to incorporate visualizations within clinical EHRs.
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA. Electronic address: leeseonah@umsl.edu.
authors.forename: Seonah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Medica Research Institute, Minnetonka, MN and Institute for Health Informatics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Era
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Karen A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Monsen
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001292:Attitude to Computers; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D062527:Meaningful Use / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008923:Missouri; D064689:Nurses, Public Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D014600:Utilization Review
keywords: Care plan; Electronic health records; Omaha System; Public health nurse; Visualization