Kathleen Adams, Blake Lesselroth, Stephanie Tallett, Portland VA Medical Center
Infographics are simple and easy to understand visual representations of complex information, data or knowledge that can enhance human ability to see patterns and trends. We, the Portland Informatics Center (PIC) and the Portland Safety Center of Inquiry (PSCI) at the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, created an infographic to support communication of complex medication reconciliation (MR) requirements to a software development vendor. The infographic fuses logic flow diagrams, business requirements, architectural proof of concept and data synthesis documents into a coherent whole using a coordinate system, color coding, and information layering.
The diagram represents an overview of the proposed MR end-to-end system architecture and the data flow “lifecycle” across the network architecture with attention paid to the functional components, the physical environment, and the affected stakeholders and business units. The infographic is intended to satisfy four objectives:
- Provide a quick reference for reviewing the end-to-end system architecture supporting MR
- Capture stakeholder and developer concurrence on the proposed architecture before implementation
- Attempt to address solution strategies that are consistent with Office of Information Technology (OIT) Service Delivery and Engineering (SDE) standards and that mitigate enterprise risks
- Support the publication of ProPath documentation including a System Design Document
This infographic superimposes the “data layer” with the “physical layer” so that a reader may understand what information is exchanged between physical components and how the data propagates across the system for each patient-initiated MR transaction. The infographic is also a reference highlighting that the software is intended to be modular and expandable, permitting facility personnel to integrate and activate (or de-activate) a variety of applications. The applications have diverse functions including clerical actions (e.g. appointment check-in), business transactions (e.g. insurance information confirmation), and clinical support services.
