Informatics Can Help Providers Incorporate Context into Care

This article argues that if the informatics infrastructure were built today, EHRs can give tomorrow's clinicians the tools and the data they need to transform the U.S. healthcare from episodic and reactive to preventive and proactive. The authors also discuss system design considerations to improve efficacy of the suggested informatics infrastructure, which include systematically prioritizing contextual data domains, developing interoperability standards, and ensuring that integration of contextual data does not disrupt clinicians' workflow. Authors: H. Estiri, C.J. Patel, S.N. Murphy