Pamela Garabedian, MS

Pronouns

She/Her/Hers

Job Title

Senior Project Specialist

Academic Rank

Department

Medicine

Authors

Angela Rui(MA), Pamela M. Garabedian (MS), Marlika Marceau (BA), Ania Syrowatka (PhD), Lynn Volk (MHS), Heba H. Edrees (PharmD), Diane L. Seger (RPh), Mary G. Amato (PharmD, MPH), Jacob Cambre (BS), Sevan Dulgarian (BA, BS), Lisa P. Newmark (BA), Karen Nanji (MD, MPH), Gretchen Purcell Jackson (MD,PhD), Ronen Rozenblum (PhD, MPH), David W. Bates (MD, MSc)

Principal Investigator

David W. Bates

Research Category: PCERC/Health Policy/Outcomes

Clinician Satisfaction and Ease of Use of DynaMed and Micromedex with Watson

Scientific Abstract

New point-of-care information resources combine disease and drug information to support clinicians in answering questions, but their usability has not been studied. This study examined usability of an integrated disease and drug resource, which includes a conversational agent, for varied clinician roles. The combined tool merges disease compendium, DynaMed, with drug knowledgebase, Micromedex, and includes an artificial intelligence conversational agent, Watson Assistant (WA). 43 participants from 5 clinical roles (MD, NP, PA, PharmD, RN) and 8 specialties (internal medicine, cardiology, infectious diseases, endocrinology, neurology, hematology/oncology, general pharmacy, and nursing) who were recruited from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. Each participant completed 7 standard scenarios developed with the assistance of subject matter experts to reflect typical clinical questions. Overall high levels of ease of use and satisfaction with answers were observed. While pharmacists spent more time on the scenarios, they reported completing the scenarios with greater ease and were more satisfied with the answers than MDs/NPs/PAs. Further research into comparing the experiences of participants from various roles could inform changes to point-of-care information resources to better support for the different clinician role types and contexts of use.

Lay Abstract

There are various online resources that can be used to find additional information for disease- or drug- related questions. However, whether these resources are easy to use or provide a good answer is rarely studied. Our study focused on analyzing the experiences of providers using an online resource known as DynaMed with Micromedex and Watson Assistant (WA). This online resource is a combined tool made up of the DynaMed database, which contains disease information, and the Micromedex database, which contains drug information. The third part of the combined tool is the WA conversational agent which uses artificial intelligence to find an answer for a question. We tested 43 participants from various clinical roles and specialties who were recruited from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. Each participant was given 7 scenarios with a drug- or disease- related question that required them to use the combined tool to find the answer. Participants reported high levels of ease and satisfaction when using the tool. Pharmacists spent more time on the scenarios, but they reported greater ease and satisfaction in comparison to other provider roles. Future research on the different experience according to role could help improve the tool for providers.

Clinical Implications

Overall, Dynamedex performed well in the usability sessions. Further usability research focused on participant experience according to the providers’ role could inform changes to point-of-care tools so they may better support different clinician role types and contexts of use.

Clinician Satisfaction and Ease of Use of DynaMed and Micromedex with Watson

Scientific Abstract

Lay Abstract

Clinical Implications

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