Harkness Project Title:
Enhancing Health Management: Predicting Physician Utilization of Integrated Electronic Prescribing
Biography at time of Harkness Fellowship: Laurel Taylor, a 2006–07 Canadian Associate of The Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellowships in Health Care Policy, is director of operations at the Canadian Patient Safety Institute. She is also assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at McGill University working with Robyn Tamblyn on the use of pharmacy and e-health technologies. Taylor is a member of the Medical Office of the Twenty-first Century (MOXXI) project team. In this innovative health research team, she has project management and liaison functions, while pursuing a stream of research concerning the integration of technology to provide improved quality and safety of health care to Canadians. Taylor's current research interests include: understanding predictors for adoption and utilization of technology in primary care; assessing the prevalence of electronic drug alerts in primary care settings with an integrated drug management system; analyzing the predictors of physician response to drug alerts; and identifying facilitators and barriers to the integration of decision support tools for the treatment of asthma into community care practices. Before relocating to Quebec, she was part of a team that introduced the principles of total quality management to the administrative and clinical functions of the University of Alberta hospitals. She has been a leading instructor in McGill University's annual Health Challenge: Integrating Management and Medicine workshop for graduating M.D.-M.B.A. students. She is also active in promoting management education for physicians and is currently a co-investigator for a unique and important clinical trial providing leadership and management education to medical residents.
Project: The objective of Taylor’s research was to define and analyze predictors of physician utilization of electronic prescribing. More than 60 GPs from more than 20 clinics participated in the study. Data were collected from multiple sources, including electronic audit data, survey data, and medical services and medication claims data. A multiple regression model was used to determine physician characteristics that significantly influenced electronic prescribing rates.
Career Highlights since Fellowship:
- Senior Provincial Director, Performance Improvement, Alberta Health Services,
- Assistant Director, Institute of Health Services and Policy Research, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, 2013
- Director of Operations , Canadian Patient Safety Institute, 2008
Current Position: Senior Provincial Director, Performance Improvement, Alberta Health Services (Updated 2/2014)
E-mail: [email protected]
Selected Publications
Sicotte C, Taylor L, Tamblyn R. Predicting the use of electronic prescribing among early adopters in primary care. Can Fam Physician. 2013 Jul;59(7):e312-21.
Taylor L, Beard P, Law S. The Ebb and FLO of improving patient safety. Healthc Pap. 2013;13(1):42-7; discussion 78-82.
Winslade N, Taylor L, Shi S, Schuwirth L, Van der Vleuten C, Tamblyn R. Monitoring community pharmacist's quality of care: a feasibility study of using pharmacy claims data to assess performance. BMC Health Serv Res. 2011 Jan 18;11:12.
Poissant L, Taylor L, Huang A, Tamblyn R. Assessing the accuracy of an inter-institutional automated patient-specific health problem list. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2010 Feb 3;10:10.
Taylor LK, Kawasumi Y, Bartlett G, Tamblyn R. Inappropriate prescribing practices: the challenge and opportunity for patient safety. Healthc Q. 2005;8 Spec No:81-5.