Are students ready for meaningful use?

Figures & data

Fig. 1 A screenshot of the electronic health record interface for the MU assignment.

Fig. 2 Screenshot of the prompts for student use in identifying the potential drug-drug interaction within the Centricity playground.

Fig. 3 After clicking on the icon, the actual report of the potential interaction was displayed.

Fig. 4 Using the flag function within the electronic health record, the student generated a flag identifying the drug–drug interaction and their recommended management considerations.

Table 1 List of 10 meaningful use competencies assessed

Students were tasked with adding:

• New problem

• New medication

• Medication dosing and instructions

• Advanced directive

• Results of a recent screening colonoscopy

• Results of a recent screening mammogram

• Smoking status

Students were tasked with performing:

• Electronic communication using a ‘flag’

• Identifying a potential drug–drug interaction

• Communicating a plan of action for the drug–drug interaction

Table 2 Number and types of meaningful use errors committed by students

	N	%
Students with MU errors
Total number of students	222
Students with at least one MU error	68	30.6
Students with two or more MU error	30	13.5
Types of MU errors
Preventive care documentation	30	23
Medication dosing and/or instructions	24	18
Documenting smoking status	20	15
Reasonable plan for DDI	18	14
Identifying DDI	16	12
Adding problem from structured problem list	8	6
Using flag to communicate findings	6	5
Adding a drug from a structured data field	4	3
Adding advanced directive from structured data field	4	3
Total number of MU errors	130

DDI, drug–drug interaction; MU, meaningful use.

Table 3 Correlation between MU performance and subsequent student performance

Correlation between MU errors and:	R	Sig (one-tailed)
NBME score	−0.081	0.117
Professionalism assessment	−0.112	0.048*
OSCE communication score	−0.173	0.006*
OSCE history-taking score	−0.165	0.008*
OSCE physical exam score	−0.087	0.103

MU, meaningful use.

* p<0.05.