On June 15th, ONC pushed a significant update to the 2015 Update Edition test procedure.
https://www.healthit.gov/test-method/safety-enhanced-design
The application of user-centered design (UCD) during development and summative testing is limited to only those nine 2015 Edition certification criteria specified in this certification criterion and only for which certification is sought, namely [80 FR 62670]:
As part of the ongoing efforts to strengthen the relationship between patients and their doctors, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today issued the Strategy on Reducing Regulatory and Administrative Burden Relating to the Use of Health IT and EHRs.
This report describes examples of electronic health record (EHR) related burden, as well as strategies and recommendations that HHS and other stakeholders can use to help clinicians focus their attention on patients rather than paperwork, when they use health information technology (health IT).
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) issued a draft Strategy on Reducing Regulatory and Administrative Burden Relating to the Use of Health IT and EHRs. The draft addresses concerns shared by clinicians and other stakeholders that EHR burden can negatively affect provider satisfaction and ultimately the care delivery experience.
This time a research report published by JAMA (Howe JL ; Adams KT ; Hettinger AZ; et al. Electronic health record usability issues and potential contribution to patient harm. JAMA. 2018; 319: 1276-1278) researchers analyzed voluntary error reports associated with Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems and found that problems with EHR usability may have directly resulted in patient harm.
Back in the 1980s Tipper Gore. Susan Baker, and several others created the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) with the intent of increasing parental control over the access of children to music deemed to have violent, drug-related or sexual themes. They used their influence as “Washington Wifes” to push for regulation of the music industry. By 1985, 19 record companies agreed to put "Parental Guidance: Explicit Lyrics" labels on albums to warn consumers of explicit lyrical content.
A large number of organizations and medical providers have gotten together to do what the government should be doing, but is not. Those organizations are:
ECRI Institute,
The Alliance for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (AQIPS),
The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC),
The Pew Charitable Trusts
They all talk about usability, but there are no usability in healthcare organizations. So UX experts have little voice.
We should build up a community of interest that can have a voice and can influence policy. We need your particiption.
ONC will be hosting a webinar that previews a new ONC-sponsored resource, the Usability Change Package (UCP). The UCP helps health IT end users in hospital settings identify usability challenges, adapt their systems to improve the usability of their systems, and assess the impact of these system changes.
This resource will be made available in the future on the Health IT Playbook. Presenters will provide an overview of the UCP, the process used to develop it, and the gaps and future considerations that were uncovered during development.
Personas enable clear understanding of the different users of a product and their goals, problems and backgrounds. The goals help to move the focus away from features onto what users are actually trying to accomplish and what users will ultimately use to evaluate the product. The problems highlight pain points and conflicts and offer opportunities for innovation and delighting users. The personas provide a way to summarize and communicate research.
Inclusion through User Experience
The world is changing and the climate of well-balanced and open society is not as prevalent as many of us would like. Technology is developing alongside new political changes. This year, 2017 is a pivotal moment in history and we can help shape the course of events by the work we do.
Below are some excerpts from the published (Nov, 2017) MACRA Final rule -- See https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2017-2406... for the complete 1600+ page document
National Health IT Week Event -- October 3, 2017 | 10am - 12pm ET
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Hubert H. Humphrey Building - Great Hall
200 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC
Join ONC for two panels of distinguished public and private sector partners highlighting advancements in interoperability and usability. This event will be hosted by Principal Deputy National Coordinator for Health IT Genevieve Morris and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Technology Reform John Fleming, MD.
The first Health Datapalooza of the Trump era was pretty reassuring for people in the health IT community:
Those feelings of relief are mostly down to HHS Secretary Tom Price. The primary takeaway is Price’s commitment to simplify reporting and usability burdens in EHRs.
“The promise of health IT is so great, but we must recognize that a one-size-fits-all, inflexible system for our nation’s patients and physicians simply will not work,” he said, adding that physicians were taking too much time “tapping on screens and keyboards rather than helping patients.”
Healthcare providers that may be interested in upgrading to the latest government-approved electronic health record systems got a signal that the products are in the pipeline, though they may be six or more months away from reaching the market.
The shift to the Stage 3 and 2015 Edition requirements has received push-back from providers, especially with the added complexity of the pending shift by physicians to the new requirements of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015.
Guest post by: Janne Pitkänen CEO at Adusso
It's challenging to evaluate usability when buying an IT system. Would it even be possible to predict an IT system's value in real use?
"In public procurement, we always need to choose the cheapest one." Do we?
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is seeking grant proposals to generate new knowledge on health IT safety.
AHRQ is interested in funding applications to conduct research on safe health IT practices specifically related to the design, implementation, usability, and safe use of health IT by all users, including nurses, physicians, patients, and caregivers.
The Interagency Committee on Disability Research (ICDR) has released the proceedings for “Accessibility and Usability in Health Information Technology: A Research & Action Conference to Empower People with Disabilities, Older Adults, and Caregivers”, held on September 17 – 18, 2015.
The Provider User-Experience (UX) Challenge incents the development of applications that use open, standardized APIs to enable innovative ways for providers to interact with patient health data. This challenge will focus on demonstrating how data made accessible to apps through APIs can positively impact providers’ experience with EHRs by making clinical workflows more intuitive, specific to clinical specialty, and actionable.
Established in 2004, the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Association is comprised of companies that supply the vast majority of operational EHRs to physicians’ practices and hospitals across the United States. The EHR Association operates on the premise that the rapid, widespread adoption of EHRs will, as a key enabler of healthcare transformation, help improve the quality of patient care as well as the productivity and sustainability of our healthcare system.
Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children. His theories of cognitive development helped pioneer the field of developmental psychology and influenced generations of elementary school curriculum.
The usability of healthcare software, or lack thereof, has been a topic of discussion for several years. The problem has become so widespread that the American Medical Association (AMA) has recently issued a framework for improving the ease of use of EHRs that, in part, includes the reduction of 'cognitive load.' Piaget’s theories can be applied to understanding some of the reasons why many EHRs are just too hard to use. They can provide guidance for finding ways to reduce the cognitive workload that so often hinders the user experience of EHR system
The Usability People work with you on improving the Usability of Healthcare IT.
Together we may save a life! #SafeHealthIT