title: Intelligent split menus for data entry: a simulation study in general practice medicine.
abstract: A compelling notion in menu design is that a few of the most frequently selected items should be placed as a hot list at the top of the menu. A few researchers have explored this type of interface control, known as a split menu, and have investigated the identification of the hot-list items by statistical analysis of past data. We extend the technique to automated development of dynamic hot-lists for entry of medication data in a General Practice setting. Using clinical data from 113,000 visits, a statistical model is developed and evaluated by simulated data entry of cases held back from training. Simulated SOAP note entry shows 12-item hot lists to hold over 70% of desired drug and diagnosis selections. Intelligent split menus should improve user efficiency if current selection methods require 3 seconds or more per item. A demonstration prototype can be downloaded over the Web.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Computing Research Centre, University of South Australia.
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Warren
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bolton
mesh_terms: D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D019992:Databases as Topic; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005194:Family Practice / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D014584:User-Computer Interface