Medication Reconciliation: Work Domain Ontology, Prototype Development, and a Predictive Model

TitleMedication Reconciliation: Work Domain Ontology, Prototype Development, and a Predictive Model
Publication TypeJournal Articles
Year of Publication2011
AuthorsMarkowitz E, Bernstam EV, Herskovic J, Zhang J, Shneiderman B, Plaisant C, Johnson TR
JournalAMIA Annual Symposium ProceedingsAMIA Annu Symp Proc
Volume2011
Pagination878 - 887
Date Published2011///
ISBN Number1942-597X
Abstract

Medication errors can result from administration inaccuracies at any point of care and are a major cause for concern. To develop a successful Medication Reconciliation (MR) tool, we believe it necessary to build a Work Domain Ontology (WDO) for the MR process. A WDO defines the explicit, abstract, implementation-independent description of the task by separating the task from work context, application technology, and cognitive architecture. We developed a prototype based upon the WDO and designed to adhere to standard principles of interface design. The prototype was compared to Legacy Health System’s and Pre-Admission Medication List Builder MR tools via a Keystroke-Level Model analysis for three MR tasks. The analysis found the prototype requires the fewest mental operations, completes tasks in the fewest steps, and completes tasks in the least amount of time. Accordingly, we believe that developing a MR tool, based upon the WDO and user interface guidelines, improves user efficiency and reduces cognitive load.