“Objective
Usability evaluation is now widely recognized as critical to the success of interactive health care applications. However, the broad range of usability inspection and testing methods available may make it difficult to decide on a usability assessment plan. To guide novices in the human–computer interaction field, we provide an overview of the methodological and empirical research available on the three usability inspection and testing methods most often used.
Methods
We describe two ‘expert-based’ and one ‘user-based’ usability method: (1) the heuristic evaluation, (2) the cognitive walkthrough, and (3) the think aloud.
Results
All three usability evaluation methods are applied in laboratory settings. Heuristic evaluation is a relatively efficient usability evaluation method with a high benefit–cost ratio, but requires high skills and usability experience of the evaluators to produce reliable results. The cognitive walkthrough is a more structured approach than the heuristic evaluation with a stronger focus on the learnability of a computer application. Major drawbacks of the cognitive walkthrough are the required level of detail of task and user background descriptions for an adequate application of the latest version of the technique. The think aloud is a very direct method to gain deep insight in the problems end users encounter in interaction with a system but data analyses is extensive and requires a high level of expertise both in the cognitive ergonomics and in computer system application domain.
Discussion and conclusions
Each of the three usability evaluation methods has shown its usefulness, has its own advantages and disadvantages; no single method has revealed any significant results indicating that it is singularly effective in all circumstances. A combination of different techniques that compliment one another should preferably be used as their collective application will be more powerful than applied in isolation. Innovative mobile and automated solutions to support end-user testing have emerged making combined approaches of laboratory, field and remote usability evaluations of new health care applications more feasible.”
Abstract
Monique W.M. Jaspers, International Journal of Medical Informatics, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 29 November 2008, doi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2008.10.002
Tagged: Health Information Technology and usability
; posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 11:11 am
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“Clicking takes much longer than flipping.” And that, says Lyle Berkowitz, MD, is why electronic medical records should be redesigned to be more efficient.
EMR systems do not take full advantage of the organizational functionalities, search proficiencies, or visual capabilities of computers, says Dr. Berkowitz, clinical associate professor of medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, and medical director of clinical information systems, Northwestern Memorial Physicians Group, Chicago. (Dr. Berkowitz spoke about EMR inefficiencies at the Physicians’ IT Symposium at the 2008 Healthcare Information and Management Society conference, in February.)”
Article
Raymond D. Aller, Hal Weiner, CAP Today, May 2008
Tagged: emr and usability
; posted on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 at 8:51 am
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Background.
Point of care access to electronic medical records may provide clinicians with the information they want when they need it and may in turn improve patient safety. Yet providing an electronic medical record on handheld devices presents many usability challenges, and it is unclear whether clinicians will use them.
Methods.
An iterative design process for the development and evaluation of a prototype of a mobile electronic medical record was performed. Usability sessions were conducted in which physicians were asked to ‘think aloud’ while working through clinical scenarios using the prototype. Verbal protocol analysis, which consists of coding utterances, was conducted on the transcripts from the sessions and common themes were extracted.
Conclusions.
While physicians can use mobile electronic medical records in realistic scenarios, certain requirements likely need to be met including a fast system with easy data selection, easy data entry and improved display before widespread adoption occurs.
Article
Robert C. Wu; M. Scott Orr; Mark Chignell; Sharon E. Straus, Informatics for Health and Social Care, Volume 33, Issue 2 June 2008, pages 139 - 149, DOI: 10.1080/17538150802127223
Tagged: emr, mobile and usability
; posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 6:01 pm
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“Why is it important to understand what “usability” means as it relates to EHR/EMR systems and whether or not “usability” is enough? Because cost and usability related concerns are the biggest barriers to EHR adoption. According to the Medical Group Management Association 2005 survey on Medical Group’s Adoption of Electronic Health Records and Information Systems1 the
three highest rated barriers to adoption are:
1) Lack of capital resources to invest in an EHR
2) Concern about the physicians’ ability to input data into the EHR
3) Concern about the loss of productivity during the transition to EHR”
Article
Mark Holliday, EHR Scope, Spring 2008
Tagged: usability
; posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 11:19 am
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