Healthcare Usability

Digital technology has transformed virtually all aspects of how we live, and now it's ready to revolutionize health care. In The Creative Destruction of Medicine, Dr. Eric Topal makes a convincing argument that the digital revolution will deconstruct how health care is delivered. For example, hand-held digital devices will provide precise diagnostic information virtually anywhere and transmit it instantaneously wherever needed. Smart phones and e-tablets will give individuals access to applications allowing them to understand and manage their health or disease.

Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation’s Heart Health Mobile app has won the Department of Health and Human Services challenge, part of its Million Hearts initiative, intended to leverage clinical and community prevention strategies to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes by 2017. The app is designed to help consumers assess their risk of heart attack or stroke and direct them to health screening locations in their community.

As the winner, Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation will receive $100,000 to support the app's development and future versions.

A free, easy-to-use mobile application that helps people prevent heart disease is now available through iTunes. The app, created by the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation as part of a nationwide competition, was announced today by Farzad Mostashari, M.D., the national coordinator for health information technology, and Janet Wright, M.D., the executive director of the Million Hearts initiative.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is developing a framework to think about the use of EHRs in relation to adverse events and patient safety. Lana Lowry, NIST project lead on usability and human factors for health IT, believes that in addition to a set of technical requirements for functionality, systems need to have the same set of user requirements for how a user performs with the system.

An American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Task Force on Usability made 10 recommendations to improve safety and quality by enhancing the usability of electronic health records. These recommendations were recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

The AMIA task force examined the literature and vendor experiences with EHR design and implementation and made the recommendations across four major areas: human factors health information technology research, health IT policy, industry and the clinician end-user of EHR software.

We have been big fans of World Usability Day for many, many years. This year the topic is healthcare related and we are very excited.

The use of Healthcare Information Technology/Systems continues to grow and affect patient care and patient safety. In efforts to support a safe environment, the FDA's MedSun program is exploring problems related to Healthcare Information Technology/Systems that may affect patient safety.These problems may be detected within the hospital environment by IT/IS professionals, end-users, super-users, management or others.

Usability is "the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use" [ISO9241]. Usability represents an important yet often overlooked factor impacting the adoption and meaningful use of electronic health record (EHR) systems. Without usable systems, doctors, medical technicians, nurses, administrative staff, consumers, and other users cannot gain the potential benefits of features and functions of EHR systems.

It’s the right time And it’s what you’ve been working toward. Health IT issues, technology, mandates and delivery of care have come together. It’s the right place. HIMSS13 provides you with what you need to impact the future: a week of dynamic programs, speakers and solutions. HIMSS13 is your conference—your forum for connecting with your community and strengthening your commitment to the unsurpassed quality of patient care. It’s on.

http://www.himssconference.org/index.aspx

This document provides NIST guidance for those developing electronic health record (EHR) applications who need to know more about processes of user centered design (UCD).

http://www.nist.gov/itl/hit/upload/Guide_Final_Publication_Version.pdf

We've been working on creating set of best practices for mobile healthcare solutions during the past few months, and it has made us think about the evolution of user experiences and their underlying technology.

In 2004 the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) was created to promote health IT adoption and lay the foundation for an infrastructure that would grow with the changing landscape of healthcare and digital records. From the beginning the most basic of terms needed to be defined and adopted to create a consistent language that would support the whole system including public policies, private development, and outreach and educational initiatives.