User-Centered Design and Evaluation of Clinical Information Systems: A Usability Engineering Perspective

The usability of health information systems has been a continuing issue in health informatics. Numerous health information systems that have been deployed worldwide have been deemed unusable, not fitting clinical workflow, and in some cases end users have rejected poorly designed systems. Along these lines, there is also growing evidence that poorly designed user interfaces may actually lead health professionals to commit medical errors. In this chapter, we describe work in applying user-centered design principles in conjunction with advances in usability engineering to improve the usability of clinical information systems. Several approaches are described from the application of laboratory style usability testing to the use of clinical simulations conducted in-situ in real-world clinical settings. We also discuss how low-cost rapid usability engineering methods can be applied throughout the design and implementation cycle of clinical information systems. In addition to this, emerging approaches to testing systems in clinical settings will be described, along with future directions.

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