Difference between revisions of "EHR usability"
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EHR (Electronic Health Record) is a longitudinal electronic record of patient health information generated by one or more encounters in any care delivery setting (1). Recently there has been an increased interest in EHR to use it as a tool to improve healthcare delivery (2). It has been argued that widespread adoption will help in improving safer and cost effective healthcare delivery (2). | EHR (Electronic Health Record) is a longitudinal electronic record of patient health information generated by one or more encounters in any care delivery setting (1). Recently there has been an increased interest in EHR to use it as a tool to improve healthcare delivery (2). It has been argued that widespread adoption will help in improving safer and cost effective healthcare delivery (2). | ||
| − | There have been multiple challenges identified to widespread adoption of EHR. One of the frequently cited challenges is EHR usability (3). Although this is a very important aspect of EHR, so far there has not been as much attention given to usability as to other aspects of EHRs like interoperability, reporting etc. Improving the usability of EHRs will support care of the “whole patient” and improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of care delivered in the primary care setting (4). | + | There have been multiple challenges identified to the widespread adoption of EHR. One of the frequently cited challenges is EHR usability (3). Although this is a very important aspect of EHR, so far there has not been as much attention given to usability as to other aspects of EHRs like interoperability, reporting etc. Improving the usability of EHRs will support care of the “whole patient” and improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of care delivered in the primary care setting (4). |
According to AHRQ report on Electronic Health Record Usability (4), there is need to fund research in areas of documenting pattern of clinical information use, developing and evaluating “use cases” and tools to evaluate EHR usability and developing ways to measure impact of usability and design on various aspects of EHR use, including navigating, documenting, reading, thinking, deciding, clinical decision making and efficiency of care delivery. Other areas identified to fund research were assessing current vendor and health care organization practices in regard to EHR design, identifying and evaluating existing evidence-based style sheets and guidelines, evaluating innovative ways to display complex information, identifying best practices in the use of shared (patient-clinician) views and promoting fellowships in the area of usability study and research. | According to AHRQ report on Electronic Health Record Usability (4), there is need to fund research in areas of documenting pattern of clinical information use, developing and evaluating “use cases” and tools to evaluate EHR usability and developing ways to measure impact of usability and design on various aspects of EHR use, including navigating, documenting, reading, thinking, deciding, clinical decision making and efficiency of care delivery. Other areas identified to fund research were assessing current vendor and health care organization practices in regard to EHR design, identifying and evaluating existing evidence-based style sheets and guidelines, evaluating innovative ways to display complex information, identifying best practices in the use of shared (patient-clinician) views and promoting fellowships in the area of usability study and research. | ||
Revision as of 23:41, 19 November 2010
EHR (Electronic Health Record) is a longitudinal electronic record of patient health information generated by one or more encounters in any care delivery setting (1). Recently there has been an increased interest in EHR to use it as a tool to improve healthcare delivery (2). It has been argued that widespread adoption will help in improving safer and cost effective healthcare delivery (2).
There have been multiple challenges identified to the widespread adoption of EHR. One of the frequently cited challenges is EHR usability (3). Although this is a very important aspect of EHR, so far there has not been as much attention given to usability as to other aspects of EHRs like interoperability, reporting etc. Improving the usability of EHRs will support care of the “whole patient” and improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of care delivered in the primary care setting (4).
According to AHRQ report on Electronic Health Record Usability (4), there is need to fund research in areas of documenting pattern of clinical information use, developing and evaluating “use cases” and tools to evaluate EHR usability and developing ways to measure impact of usability and design on various aspects of EHR use, including navigating, documenting, reading, thinking, deciding, clinical decision making and efficiency of care delivery. Other areas identified to fund research were assessing current vendor and health care organization practices in regard to EHR design, identifying and evaluating existing evidence-based style sheets and guidelines, evaluating innovative ways to display complex information, identifying best practices in the use of shared (patient-clinician) views and promoting fellowships in the area of usability study and research.
AHRQ report recommended establishing certification requirement for EHR usability to make sure that EHR vendors establish and document programs for testing the usability of their systems, including potential impacts on quality and safety. It also recommended developing a national EHR usability laboratory to support public-private sharing, develop tools for evaluation or products for usability and assist vendors in product development and health care organizations in implementation of usable EHRs.
(1). http://www.himss.org/ASP/topics_ehr.asp
(2). INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE, Richard S. Dick, Elaine B. Steen, and Don E. Detmer, Editors. THE COMPUTER-BASED PATIENT RECORD, Revised Edition, An Essential Technology for Health Care,1997
(3). http://www.healthcareitnews.com/blog/blog-top-10-barriers-ehr-implementation
(4). http://healthit.ahrq.gov/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_907505_0_0_18/09(10)-0091-2-EF.pdf
Submitted by (M. Tariq Dastagir MD)
