Non-Profit Releases Education Material for Health IT-related Patient Safety

The National Patient Safety Foundation, a Boston-based non-profit organization, has released educational materials that aim to help healthcare professionals align their health information technology goals with patient safety.

The educational material, titled Health Information Technology through the Lens of Patient Safety, is geared towards physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and patient safety and health quality professionals. It has them complete an educational program which describes how health IT can affect patient safety, define the challenges of health IT use, analyze strategies for evaluation and implementation of an HIT initiative, and identify ways that HIT can support a culture of transparency and safety. The educational material is online and includes audio/slide lectures.

"A successful HIT program requires a solid understanding of the fundamental principles that are critical to moving the national patient safety agenda forward," Tejal K. Gandhi, M.D., said in a statement. "This educational module provides the background and knowledge needed to incorporate these patient safety principles in the design and deployment of HIT."