ReviewApplied clinical informatics2021
Identifying Opportunities for Workflow Automation in Health Care: Lessons Learned from Other Industries.
Review in Applied clinical informatics, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 79 citations in OpenAlex.
- Implementation of patient safety monitoring systems in hospitals: a systematic review.BMJ health & care informatics · 2025Pooled it
- Data Quality-Driven Improvement in Health Care: Systematic Literature Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Pooled it
- Pediatric Preanesthesia Assessment Electronic Triage Tool: Implementation, Quality Improvement, and Retrospective Observational Evaluation of a Patient-Administered Questionnaire.Paediatric anaesthesia · 2026Observational
- Implementing a quality assurance and maintenance framework for standardized clinical terminology data in a multi-institutional setting.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2026Article
- Associations Between Hospital Structural Characteristics and Adoption of Public Health Data Integration and Automation: National Cross-Sectional proofsStudy.Online journal of public health informatics · 2026Article
- Comprehensive Pediatric Health Risk Stratification Using an AI-Driven Framework in Children Aged 2 to 8 Years: Design and Validation Study.JMIR medical informatics · 2026Article
- Bibliometric Mapping of 40 Years of AI in Nursing: Trends, Collaborations, and Research Hotspots Worldwide.Journal of nursing management · 2026Review
- Development and application of desiderata for automated clinical ordering.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2025Article
- Maturity Framework for Operationalizing Machine Learning Applications in Health Care: Scoping Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Lessons Learned from the Usability Assessment of an EHR-Based Tool to Support Adherence to Antihypertensive Medications.Applied clinical informatics · 2025Article
- Enhancing Radiologist Productivity with Artificial Intelligence in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): A Narrative Review.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Multicentre prospective risk analysis of a fully automated radiotherapy workflow.Physics and imaging in radiation oncology · 2025Article
- Optimising pharmacy processes in medication delivery service through digitalisation and automation.BMJ open quality · 2025Article
- Unlocking the Power of AI: Healthcare Workforce Perception and Its Impact on their Work Performance in Saudi Arabia.Pakistan journal of medical sciences · 2025Article
- Computer-Assisted Protocol-Adherent Blood Lipid Evaluation in Vascular Outpatients (CAPABLE-Vascular).Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Technological Adjuncts to Streamline Patient Recruitment, Informed Consent, and Data Management Processes in Clinical Research: Observational Study.JMIR formative research · 2025Observational
- Increasing hospital administrative efficiency via optimized office automation systems: A PDCA cycle approach.PloS one · 2025Article
- The Effect of Electronic Health Record and Immunization Information System Interoperability on Medical Practice Vaccination Workflow.Applied clinical informatics · 2025Article
- AI with agency: a vision for adaptive, efficient, and ethical healthcare.Frontiers in digital health · 2025Article
- An ontology-based method for formalizing and encoding patient colonoscopy preparation using BPMN and OWL2 for automated tool development.Journal of clinical informatics · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWorkflow automation, which involves identifying sequences of tasks that can be streamlined by using technology and modern computing, offers opportunities to address the United States health care system's challenges with quality, safety, and efficiency. Other industries have successfully implemented workflow automation to address these concerns, and lessons learned from those experiences may inform its application in health care.
objectiveOur aim was to identify and synthesize (1) current approaches in workflow automation across industries, (2) opportunities for applying workflow automation in health care, and (3) considerations for designing and implementing workflow automation that may be relevant to health care.
methodsWe conducted a targeted review of peer-reviewed and gray literature on automation approaches. We identified relevant databases and terms to conduct the searches across sources and reviewed abstracts to identify 123 relevant articles across 11 disciplines.
resultsWorkflow automation is used across industries such as finance, manufacturing, and travel to increase efficiency, productivity, and quality. We found automation ranged from low to full automation, and this variation was associated with task and technology characteristics. The level of automation is linked to how well a task is defined, whether a task is repetitive, the degree of human intervention and decision-making required, and the sophistication of available technology. We found that identifying automation goals and assessing whether those goals were reached was critical, and ongoing monitoring and improvement would help to ensure successful automation.
conclusionUse of workflow automation in other industries can inform automating health care workflows by considering the critical role of people, process, and technology in design, testing, implementation, use, and ongoing monitoring of automated workflows. Insights gained from other industries will inform an interdisciplinary effort by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to outline priorities for advancing health care workflow automation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.