Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2012

Mentor:                                   Jim Wagner, MD
Department:                          Internal Medicine
Room number:                     S1.102
Mail Code:                             9006
Phone number:                    214 648 2168
E-mail:                                   james.wagner@UTSouthwestern.edu
Project title:               Observation of Rounding within the Electronic Health Record Age—Patterns of Behavior and Use

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): Pending

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable):  N/A

Project Type Patient based research

Brief Description of Project:
The practice of medicine is being rapidly transformed by new technology.  The enthusiastic adaptation to the electronic medical record (EMR) may influence the culture of both inpatient and outpatient care.  The internal medicine inpatient service at Parkland Memorial Hospital recently converted to an EMR.  The purpose of this study is to document how time is spent during rounding on these inpatient teams.

The student(s) involved in this project will be assigned a series of inpatient teams to observe the behavior during rounds.  For example, the student will document where the rounding takes place, who is present, and what each is doing (accessing the EMR, EBM, text paging consultants, presenting to the attending, listening to others present, returning pages, etc.).  We are interested in the spectrum of rounding models employed by the 10 to 20 different ward teams observed during this 8 week study and how those models have been changed with the implementation of the EMR.

The student(s) will be involved in the data gathering and analysis portions of this study that occur during the summer.  If interested, the student may also participate in the synthesis and publication of this study.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:
Dr. Wagner has used medical students for a medical education research projects exploring the effect of group listening technology on the teaching and recognition of patient heart sounds.