Dr. Shachak holds a PhD in Information Science from Bar-Ilan University, Israel. His research explores various interventions to improve use of information and communication technology in health care and biomedicine and help realizing the potential benefits of these systems. This work includes the study, design, and evaluation of educational interventions, tutorials and user manuals, user interfaces, and end-user support. The work he led on the impact of electronic health records on patient-clinician communication, and clinicians’ adaptation to the challenges involved, has informed the design of several simulation-based educational interventions. Dr. Shachak is also interested in patient engagement through the use of information and communication technology (ICT) and particularly the interrelationships between patients' preferred roles in decision making, health information literacy and use of information resources. This work seeks to inform patient engagement initiatives to ensure that they meet patients and families’ needs and preferences. Dr. Shachak’s work has been published in various Medical, Information Science, Medical Informatics, and Technical Communication journals and conferences.
Dr. Borycki's research interests include electronic health record education for health professionals, health information systems safety, human factors, clinical informatics, and organizational behavior and change management involving health information systems. She has authored and co-authored many articles and book chapters as well as edited several books examining the effects of health and clinical information systems upon health professional work processes and patient care outcomes. Dr. Borycki was Canada's Health Informatics Association Academic Representative to the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) from 2007-2013 and represented North America as a Vice President on the Board of Directors of IMIA from 2010-2013. She was also a founding chair of the IMIA Working Group focusing on Health Informatics for Patient Safety.
Dr. Reis is a family physician in northern Israel, serving within an integrated health and social services centre he pioneered over 37 years ago. He is also an associate editor of the lead scientific journal in the domain of patient-doctor communication (Patient Education and Counselling). He served as the Israeli principal investigator in multinational European research projects (IMPROVE, EUROPEP), coordinated the Galil Center for Medical Informatics and Telemedicine at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and is currently the PI for a research study of primary care physicians’ communication skills in the computerized environment, conducted at the Israeli National Simulation Center. He teaches an innovative course on the doctor in the digital age in his institution, and incorporates computer related skills in the clinical skills course he oversees. He supervises two PhD students who conduct research on tools to assess communication in the computerized setting, and interventions to enhance those skills. He is the co-editor of Patients and Doctors: Life-Changing Stories From Primary Care (1999) and has written and lectured widely on his topics of interest including assessment of students and physicians, Holocaust and Medicine, and patient-doctor-computer communication.