TY  - JOUR
AU  - Yigzaw, Kassaye Yitbarek
AU  - Chomutare, Taridzo
AU  - Wynn, Rolf
AU  - Berntsen, Gro Karine Rosvold
AU  - Bellika, Johan Gustav
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/7/13
TI  - A Privacy-Preserving Audit and Feedback System for the Antibiotic Prescribing of General Practitioners: Survey Study
JO  - JMIR Form Res
SP  - e31650
VL  - 6
IS  - 7
KW  - learning health care system
KW  - feedback
KW  - antimicrobial stewardship
KW  - quality improvement
KW  - privacy
KW  - electronic health record
KW  - antibiotics
KW  - prescription
KW  - patient privacy
KW  - clinical setting
AB  - Background: Antibiotic resistance is a worldwide public health problem that is accelerated by the misuse and overuse of antibiotics. Studies have shown that audits and feedback enable clinicians to compare their personal clinical performance with that of their peers and are effective in reducing the inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics. However, privacy concerns make audits and feedback hard to implement in clinical settings. To solve this problem, we developed a privacy-preserving audit and feedback (A&F) system. Objective: This study aims to evaluate a privacy-preserving A&F system in clinical settings. Methods: A privacy-preserving A&F system was deployed at three primary care practices in Norway to generate feedback for 20 general practitioners (GPs) on their prescribing of antibiotics for selected respiratory tract infections. The GPs were asked to participate in a survey shortly after using the system. Results: A total of 14 GPs responded to the questionnaire, representing a 70% (14/20) response rate. The participants were generally satisfied with the usefulness of the feedback and the comparisons with peers, as well as the protection of privacy. The majority of the GPs (9/14, 64%) valued the protection of their own privacy as well as that of their patients. Conclusions: The system overcomes important privacy and scaling challenges that are commonly associated with the secondary use of electronic health record data and has the potential to improve antibiotic prescribing behavior; however, further study is required to assess its actual effect. 
SN  - 2561-326X
UR  - https://formative.jmir.org/2022/7/e31650
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/31650
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35830221
DO  - 10.2196/31650
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/31650
ER  -