January 10th: Speaking at BayCHI

A quick bit of news, for those of you in and around the Bay Area: I’m speaking next Tuesday on my research at BayCHI, held at PARC in Palo Alto. Please join me! Go here for more information. 

Here are the details on my talk:

On or Off the Record? Organizational Culture and The Physician Experience Implementing Electronic Health Records
Leah Reich, XpcXpts

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are not everywhere yet, but by 2014 they will be, given the mandate in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. There are many things we don’t know about EHRs, but one thing we know for sure: Like other big technological disruptions, implementing them is enormously stressful. Given the looming deadline, relatively little research has been done into the experience of clinicians in implementing health IT and EHR. If conflict or a problem arises, where and why? How do people then navigate their way through it?

I’ll answer these questions by presenting research I conducted during eighteen-month longitudinal ethnography in a networked group of ambulatory care clinics during the transition from a paper record system to an EHR. It’s a compelling case study of the clinician experience during the transition to EHR, with its empirical examination of the contexts, routines, and conflicts. I’ll discuss the critical role organizational culture plays in the way people learn about technology, identify issues, and manage problems. This can help clinicians, administrators, and designers anticipate stress, conflict, and the consequences of both.

Hope to see some of you there. Please say hi!