TY - JOUR
T1 - Inter-observer reliability assessments in time motion studies
T2 - the foundation for meaningful clinical workflow analysis.
AU - Lopetegui, Marcelo A.
AU - Bai, Shasha
AU - Yen, Po Yin
AU - Lai, Albert
AU - Embi, Peter
AU - Payne, Philip R.O.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Understanding clinical workflow is critical for researchers and healthcare decision makers. Current workflow studies tend to oversimplify and underrepresent the complexity of clinical workflow. Continuous observation time motion studies (TMS) could enhance clinical workflow studies by providing rich quantitative data required for in-depth workflow analyses. However, methodological inconsistencies have been reported in continuous observation TMS, potentially reducing the validity of TMS' data and limiting their contribution to the general state of knowledge. We believe that a cornerstone in standardizing TMS is to ensure the reliability of the human observers. In this manuscript we review the approaches for inter-observer reliability assessment (IORA) in a representative sample of TMS focusing on clinical workflow. We found that IORA is an uncommon practice, inconsistently reported, and often uses methods that provide partial and overestimated measures of agreement. Since a comprehensive approach to IORA is yet to be proposed and validated, we provide initial recommendations for IORA reporting in continuous observation TMS.
AB - Understanding clinical workflow is critical for researchers and healthcare decision makers. Current workflow studies tend to oversimplify and underrepresent the complexity of clinical workflow. Continuous observation time motion studies (TMS) could enhance clinical workflow studies by providing rich quantitative data required for in-depth workflow analyses. However, methodological inconsistencies have been reported in continuous observation TMS, potentially reducing the validity of TMS' data and limiting their contribution to the general state of knowledge. We believe that a cornerstone in standardizing TMS is to ensure the reliability of the human observers. In this manuscript we review the approaches for inter-observer reliability assessment (IORA) in a representative sample of TMS focusing on clinical workflow. We found that IORA is an uncommon practice, inconsistently reported, and often uses methods that provide partial and overestimated measures of agreement. Since a comprehensive approach to IORA is yet to be proposed and validated, we provide initial recommendations for IORA reporting in continuous observation TMS.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84901277373&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Review article
C2 - 24551381
AN - SCOPUS:84901277373
SN - 1559-4076
VL - 2013
SP - 889
EP - 896
JO - AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings / AMIA Symposium. AMIA Symposium
JF - AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings / AMIA Symposium. AMIA Symposium
ER -