Dimensions of Information and Resource Flow in Healthcare Systems

Abstract

This study focuses on classifying human interactions in healthcare delivery in terms of the information and resource flows at multiple levels of analysis. Understanding the characteristic healthcare delivery requirements and communication patterns among healthcare professionals seems to be necessary to effectively support information sharing and coordination. We analyzed communication links between healthcare providers and dissected different types of information and resource flow. We identified four dimensions of information and resource flow: spatial proximity, flow requirement, modality, and flow path. Now that we have set a new methodology to characterize them, we can easily distinguish the various information and resource flow types. When applying these finding in simulating healthcare systems in order to analyze information and resource sharing and coordination, the above four dimensions would serve as attributes of the flowing entities. Finally, we demonstrate that the results of this study are the natural first step towards developing an efficient healthcare quality measurement tool.