Process mining techniques can be used to analyse business processes using the data logged during their execution. These techniques are leveraged in a wide range of domains, including healthcare, where it focuses mainly on the analysis of diagnostic, treatment, and organisational processes. Despite the huge amount of data generated in hospitals by staff and machinery involved in healthcare processes, there is no evidence of a systematic uptake of process mining beyond targeted case studies in a research context. When developing and using process mining in healthcare, distinguishing characteristics of healthcare processes such as their variability and patient-centred focus require targeted attention. Against this background, the Process-Oriented Data Science in Healthcare Alliance has been established to propagate the research and application of techniques targeting the data-driven improvement of healthcare processes. This paper, an initiative of the alliance, presents the distinguishing characteristics of the healthcare domain that need to be considered to successfully use process mining, as well as open challenges that need to be addressed by the community in the future.

To strengthen collaboration between hospitals and community healthcare in Norway, an electronic messaging system was introduced. We argue that technology support for collaboration can be understood in terms of the concepts of collaboration embedded in the technology (workflow, information exchange, and communication). We analyze the e-messaging system from these three perspectives and show that its relative success is a result of how the system supports all three collaboration ideas.

Identifying an appropriate method to evaluate the use of technology during patient case discussions at multidisciplinary medical team (MDT) meetings, is problematic. A number of approaches conducted over an extended period of study are described and the lessons learned are explained. A framework is proposed to serve as a basis for evaluation of technology use in these complex collaborative work settings that incorporates hospital, technology and people perspectives.

Increasing dependability in collaboration work among health professionals will directly improve patient outcomes, and reduce healthcare costs. Our research examines the development of a shared visual display to facilitate data entry and validation of an electronic record during multidisciplinary team meeting discussion, where specialists discuss patient symptoms, test results, and image findings. The problem of generating an electronic record for patient files that will serve as a record of collaboration, communication and a guide for later tasks is addressed through use of the shared visual display. Shortcomings in user-informed designed, structured data-entry screens became evident when in actual use. Time constraints prompt the synopsis of discussion in acronyms, free text, abbreviations, and the use of inferences. We demonstrate how common ground, team cohesiveness and the use of a shared visual display can improve dependability, but these factors can also provide a false sense of security and increase vulnerability in the patient management system.

Collaboration and coordination are demanding tasks in health care, but may be supported by computer systems. In this paper we describe our initial work in a large research project (Cooperation Support Through Transparency). The aim is to provide actors with information about the course of a process, thereby facilitating informed decisions and in such way support collaboration in peri-operative processes. The focus in this paper is on operating nurses' current use of information resources and their information needs. He use a combination of semi-structured interviews and participant observation. Theoretically, our analyses are informed by e.g. the concepts awareness and articulation work. The study shows that this combination of methods is most useful, offering complementary insights and drawing an attention to mismatches between what is said and what is done by nurses. Furthermore, based on the empirical material, we discuss implications for design.

The ability to exchange in a meaningful, secure, and simple fashion relevant healthcare data about patients is seen as vital in the context of efficient and cost-effective shared or team-based care. The electronic healthcare record (EHCR) lies at the heart of this information exchange, and it follows that there is an urgent need to address the ability to share EHCR's or parts of records between carers and across distributed health information systems. This paper presents the Synapses approach to sharing based on a standardized shared record, the Federated Healthcare Record, which is implemented in an open and flexible manner using the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). The architecture of the Federated Healthcare Record is based on the architecture proposed by the Technical Committee 251 of the European Committee for Standardization.