I am a senior research scientist in the Institute of Health Policy and Management. My research focuses on the impact of design and implementation of health information technology systems on clinical work practices. I teach about the social and organizational issues of health informatics. Currently I am also a research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Until January 1, 2008 I was a visiting research fellow at the Centre for Health Informatics of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. In 2003-2004 I was a visiting scientist in the Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology, School of Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Ore.

Education

Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam: PhD.
Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen: BSc in physics and mathematics and MSc in experimental solid state physics.

Short bio

After my graduation in 1980 I taught medical physics and computing in higher professional education. Apart from teaching I was very much involved in the development of courses at the graduate and post-graduate level and learning materials for health informatics. Previous employers were Saxion Hogescholen in Zwolle/Deventer, Hogeschool van Utrecht and Fontys Hogescholen in Eindhoven. From 1988 - 1992 I was a visiting researcher at the Department of Medical Informatics (MIEUR) of Erasmus MC working on problems of the electronic patient record. During my professional career I gained interest in the social and organizational aspects of health informatics, because I felt that these were equally important as the underlying technology to make information systems work in practice. Fortunately, both at a national and international level I found people who shared the same interest. In the European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI) I founded a working group on human and organizational issues of medical informatics. Since 1999 I am a scientific staff member of the Institute of Health Policy and Management of Erasmus University Rotterdam. I have also an appointment in the Department of Medical Informatics of Erasmus MC.

Department activities

At iBMG and Erasmus University my duties include:

• Research (health informatics and clinical work).
• Supervision of PhD students.
• Coordination and teaching of the elective course Health Informatics (Zorg Informatiemanagement) for healthcare management (ZoMa) master students.
• Supervision of dissertation work of bachelor and master students.
• Membership User Committee Erasmus MC Medical Library.
• Chair Erasmus MC employees council for clusters 13, 14, 15 and 16 (until January 1, 2010).

Publications

Selected papers

• Aarts, J., H. van der Sijs (2009) "CPOE, alerts and workflow: taking stock of ten years research at Erasmus MC." Stud Health Technol Inform 148:165-9.
• van der Sijs, H., L. Lammers, A. van den Tweel, J. Aarts, M. Berg, A. Vulto, T. van Gelder (2009) "Time-dependent drug-drug interaction alerts in care provider order entry (CPOE): software may inhibit medication error reductions." J Am Med Inform Assoc Aug 28.
• Niazkhani, Z., H. Pirnejad H, M. Berg, J. Aarts (2009) "The impact of computerized provider order entry systems on inpatient clinical workflow: a literature review." J Am Med Inform Assoc 16: 539-49.
• van der Sijs, H., R. Kowlesar, J. Aarts, M. Berg, A. Vulto, T. van Gelder (2009) "Unintended consequences of reducing QT-alert overload in a computerized physician order entry system." Eur J Clin Pharmacol 65: 919-25.
• Aarts, J. and R. Koppel (2009) "Implementation of computerized physician order entry in seven countries." Health Aff 28: 404-14.
• Niazkhani, Z., H. van der Sijs, H. Pirnejad, K. Redekop, J. Aarts (2009) "Same system, different outcomes: Comparing the transitions from two paper-based systems to the same computerized physician order entry system." Int J Med Inform 78: 170-81.
• Hasman, A., S.K. Andersen, G.O. Klein, S. Schulz, J. Aarts, M.C. Mazzoleni (2009) "MIE 2008: eHealth beyond the horizonÑget IT there." Methods Inf Med 48: 135-6.
• de Lusignan, S., J. Aarts. (2008) "UK's National Programme for IT welcomes recommendation for a more sociotechnical approach to evaluation: a commentary on the Greenhalgh evaluation of the summary care record." Inform Prim Care 16: 75-77.
• Van der Sijs, H., J. Aarts, T. van Gelder, M. Berg, and A. Vulto (2008). "Turning off frequently overridden drug alerts: limited opportunities for doing it safely." J Am Med Inform Assoc 15(4): 439-48.
• Aarts, J. and P. Gorman (2007). "IT in Health Care: Sociotechnical Approaches To Err is System". Int J Med Inf 76(S1): 1-3.
• Aarts, J., J. Ash, and M. Berg (2007). "Extending the understanding of computerized physician order entry: implications for professional collaboration, workflow and quality of care." Int J Med Inf 76(S1): 4-13.
• Aarts, J.(2007). "Comparing the implementation of CPOE in two Dutch hospitals revisited. Reply" Methods Inf Med 46(1): VI-VII.
• Van der Sijs, H., J. Aarts, A. Vulto, and M. Berg (2006). "Overriding alerts in computerized physician order entry." J Am Med Inform Assoc 13(2): 138-47.
• Aarts, J. and M. Berg (2006). "Same systems, different outcomes: comparing the implementation of computerized physician order entry in two Dutch hospitals." Methods Inf Med 45(1): 53-61.
• Aarts, J. and M. Berg (2004). "A tale of two hospitals: a sociotechnical appraisal of the introduction of computerized physician order entry in two Dutch hospitals." Medinfo 11: 999-1002.
• Aarts, J., H. Doorewaard and M. Berg. (2004). "Understanding implementation: the case of a computerized physician order entry system in a large Dutch university medical center." J Am Med Inform Assoc 11(3): 207-16.
• Berg, M., J. Aarts, and J. van der Lei. (2003). "ICT in health care: sociotechnical approaches." Methods Inf Med 42(4): 297-301.
• Aarts, J., M. Berg and E. Huisman. (2003). "Health Information Management Education at the Institute of Health Policy and Management of the Erasmus University Medical Center." Yearbook of Medical Informatics: 179-83.
• Aarts, J. (2001). "On articulation and localization - Some sociotechnical issues of design, implementation, and evaluation of knowledge based systems." Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, Proceedings 2101: 16-19.
• Aarts, J. and M. Berg (2000). "Organizational issues of health informatics: challenges in education." Proc AMIA Symp: 939.
• Hoekstra, S. and J. Aarts (2000). "A coherent approach to health informatics education: results of the Dutch curriculum project." Stud Health Technol Inform 57: 66-70.
• Aarts, J. and V. Peel (1999). "Using a descriptive model of change when implementing large scale clinical information systems to identify priorities for further research." Int J Med Inf 56(1-3): 43-50.
• Aarts, J. (1999). "From model to materials: the results of the Dutch project to develop learning materials for health informatics education." Proc AMIA Symp: 1009.
• Aarts, J., V. Peel, and G. Wright. (1998). "Organizational issues in health informatics: a model approach." Int J Med Inf 52(1-3): 235-42.
• Oostendorp, A., S. Hoekstra, and J. Aarts. (1998). "Exploring factors required for successful implementation of healthcare informatics." Stud Health Technol Inform 51: 146-51.
• Aarts, J. (1995). "A model curriculum of health care informatics for Dutch higher professional education." Proc Annu Symp Comput Appl Med Care: 480-3.
• Aarts, J., D.P.F. Möller and R.P. van Wijk van Brievingh. (1991). "Modeling and simulation in biomedicine." Proc Annu Symp Comput Appl Med Care: 900-2.
• Aarts, J. (1987). "Nursing informatics in The Netherlands." Comput Nurs 5(6): 235.

Selected books and book chapters

• Aarts, J. and F. Magrabi (2008). Medical informatics. In: Patient safety in emergency medicine. P. Croskerry, K.S. Cosby, M.S. Schenkel, R.L. Wears, eds. Philadelphia, Lippincott Wiliams & Wilkins.
• Coiera, E.W., J.I. Westbrook, J. Callen, J. Aarts, eds. (2007). Information Technology in Health Care 2007: socio-technical approaches, Amsterdam, IOS Press.
• Aarts, J. (2001). Verpleegkundige informatica (Nursing informatics), 4th ed. Maarssen, Elsevier.
• Aarts, J. (1998). A postgraduate program in nursing informatics. In: Nursing and computers: an anthology, 1987-1996. V.K. Saba, D.B. Pocklington and K.P. Miller, eds. New York, Springer: 546-52.
• Aarts, J. (1995). Een leerplan informatiekunde in de gezondheidszorg (A model curriculum of health informatics). Utrecht, Lemma Publishers.
• Aarts, J. and B.J. Jansen, (1993). How to use this book. In: Biomedical modeling and simulation on a PC, a workbench for physiology and biomedical engineering. R.P. van Wijk van Brievingh and D.P.F. Möller, eds. New York, Springer: 89-93.
• Jansen, B.J., J. Aarts and M.G.J. Arts. (1993). Pumping and wall mechanics of the left ventricle. In: Biomedical modeling and simulation on a PC, a workbench for physiology and biomedical engineering. R.P. van Wijk van Brievingh and D.P.F. Möller, eds. New York, Springer-Verlag: 188-94.
• Aarts, J. (1983). Je zult maar patiënt zijn (Patient safety). In: Veiligheid in het ziekenhuis (Hospital safety). R.P. van Wijk van Brievingh and F. Koornneef, eds. Delft, Delft University Press: 29-49.

Doctoral thesis

In 2005 I was awarded a doctorate for a thesis entitled: "Understanding implementation: a sociotechnical appraisal of the introduction of computerized physician order entry systems in Dutch and American hospitals." The core theme of my thesis is the sociotechnical understanding of the implementation of computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems in hospitals. In my thesis I address questions such as what characterizes an implementation process, how does CPOE impact clinical work practices, how do different professional groups respond to the introduction of new information technologies and how they are involved. High hopes have been placed on CPOE to improve the quality of care, especially the reduction of medication errors. I did fieldwork in Dutch hospitals and made a comparison of CPOE implementations in the Netherlands and the United States. More about CPOE can be found on www.CPOE.org. See for a press coverage of my research iHealthBeat of the California Health Foundation and Radbode, information magazine for Radboud University Hospital (see "Publicaties, Radbode, Archief, 2005, Radbode 14, 9 September, page 14 (pdf), in Dutch). A copy of my thesis can be downloaded from Erasmus RePub. Chapters of my thesis have been published as articles in scientific journals.

Professional activities

Membership

• Dutch Physical Society (NNV).
• Dutch Medical Informatics Association (VMBI).
• American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA).
• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
• Association for Information Systems (AIS).
• Working Group "Organizational Issues of Medical Informatics" of EFMI.
• IFIP Working Group 8.2 "Information Systems and the Organization" (IFIP WG8.2)

Other professional activities

• Chair Scientific Programme Committee MIE2011, Oslo, Norway, August 2011.
• Co-chair ITHC2010, Aalborg, Denmark, June 2010.
• Member Editorial Board International Journal of Medical Informatics, 2009-2011.
• Core member Scientific Programme Committee MIE2008, Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2008.
• Co-chair and proceedings co-editor ITHC2007 (search IOS Press), Sydney, NSW, Australia.
• Co-chair ITHC2004, Portland, Ore, USA.

Personal interests

I enjoy to read about the history of science and listen to and read about (early) classical music. My favorite composers are Johann Sebastian Bach and Claudio Monteverdi. But I should also include Gustav Mahler. In Nijmegen I am as a board member of the Stichting Nijmeegse Orgelkring involved with the organization of the annual cycle of organ concerts in St Stephen's church (Stevenskerk).

Contact

• T: +31 10 408 8534
• F: +31 10 408 9094
• E: aarts at bmg dot eur dot nl