Institute:Office of National Coordinator (ONC) Workforce Training Curriculum
Component:The Culture of Health Care
Unit:Health Care Processes and Decision Making
Lecture:The clinical process - overview of the classic paradigm
Gathering data and analyzing findings
Making a diagnosis
The impact of EHRs and technology on clinical decision-making
Slide content:Interpretation: How Clinicians Understand Clinical Data Disciplinary differences Different approaches to clinical data interpretation Development of social construction Contextual interpretation of data 12
Slide notes:As clinicians gather information and decide what to do for each patient, their interpretation of the data depends on many factors. First, there are professional and disciplinary differences. A neurologist and a psychiatrist examining the same patient may elicit and focus on very different information and make different sense of it. Clinicians may also use differing approaches to interpreting clinical data as they attempt to reach a diagnosis. When observing clinicians working in groups, it becomes apparent that an important part of interpretation, especially in interdisciplinary care, is social construction, or the meaning that arises as clinicians discuss a patient. Social construction can be observed in settings such as the intensive care unit. During ICU rounds, the conversation among the participants often allows insight and consensus to emerge. Perhaps most important, clinicians interpretation of data depends on contextthe patients context, the clinicians context, the setting, and other factors. A single piece of information may have very different implications depending on these contexts. 12