# Connected Cancer Care: EHR Communication Networks in Virtual Cancer Care Teams

> **NIH AHRQ R21** · UNIVERSITY OF IOWA · 2020 · $122,045

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
The widespread adoption of electronic health records (EHR) systems is changing how healthcare professionals
(HCPs) deliver care and communicate with each other. Although evidence suggests that EHR use was
associated with increased adherence to guidelines, enhanced clinical surveillance, and decreased medication
errors, the impact of EHR use on communication and teamwork among HCPs is not well understood. A major
challenge is that most care teams are virtual teams that are difficult to study or improve their practice using
traditional methods. The objective of this project is to develop methods for measuring EHR communication
networks, defined as EHR-based information sharing connections among HCPs, in virtual care teams and
examine the relationship between EHR communication networks and care quality.
We will address two specific aims. The first aim is to develop and compare methods for measuring EHR
communication networks in virtual care teams for breast, colorectal, and non-small cell lung cancer patients.
We will extract data from the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System's EHR system to construct
EHR communication networks among HCPs who provide care to a patient between the time of diagnosis and
completion of the first-course treatment. We will use three methods for constructing the temporal EHR
communication networks: the weighted and directed network, the exponential-threshold network, and the
multivariate marked Hawkes process. We will compare networks constructed from different methods. The
second aim is to examine associations between EHR communication network structures and patient outcomes,
including 30-day re-admissions and emergency department (ED) visits, one-year utilization of inpatient and ED
services, and one-year mortality. We will apply appropriate statistical techniques (generalized linear mixed
models) to analyze associations between communication network structures and subsequent patient
outcomes, adjusted for patient characteristics and comorbidities.
We expect that this project will build a foundation for future research and quality improvement efforts to
unleash the enormous potential of using EHR data to understand complex communication activities in virtual
care teams and design team-based interventions, leading to accelerated progress towards improving care
quality and outcomes through the use of health information technology.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9901453
- **Project number:** 5R21HS026075-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
- **Principal Investigator:** Xi Zhu
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** AHRQ
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $122,045
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-04-01 → 2022-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9901453

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9901453, Connected Cancer Care: EHR Communication Networks in Virtual Cancer Care Teams (5R21HS026075-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9901453. Licensed CC0.

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