Organizational and Behavioral Issues

While there is increasing recognition that organizational issues impact all aspects of clinical informatics, informaticians find it difficult to deal with these issues in a systematic, strategic way. The discipline of organizational behavior, which includes subjects such as organizational structure, culture, human resources management, power, politics and negotiation, leadership, motivation, and communication, offers the building blocks for informatics-related processes such as systems implementation, change management, strategic planning, and project management. We offer a model as an aid to understanding organizational and behavioral issues. The Golden Circle of Health Informatics Behavior model can guide development of informatics processes so that the end results, such as electronic health record implementation, health information exchange programs, telemedicine, research systems, and clinical decision support for personalized medicine, can be accomplished successfully.