title: How will we know if it's working? A multi-faceted approach to measuring usability of a specialty-specific electronic medical record.
abstract: The most effective use of electronic medical records (EMRs) will result from wide-scale adoption and appropriate use of the technology-two factors that rely heavily on a system's usability. We conducted a qualitative and quantitative usability assessment of an EMR developed specifically for treating the HIV/AIDS patient population. The purpose of this study was to inform developers on how to prioritize resources for their impending software rebuild initiative and to evaluate a dual methodology consisting of both quantitative and qualitative components. The results indicated that the methodology was valid, although there were some variations recommended for future usability assessments of EMRs. The study also underscored the need to assess usability based on user feedback and to employ multiple methods to elicit information; this research revealed many insights into the software that contradicted initial assumptions and also found that asking questions in multiple ways yielded more complete feedback.
authors.affiliation: Healthcare Innovation and Technology Lab, USA. author@hitlab.org
authors.forename: Ilene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hollin
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Griffin
authors.forename: Stan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kachnowski
mesh_terms: D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019985:Benchmarking / Q000592:standards; D003196:Computer Graphics; D003199:Computer Systems; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006804:Ergonomics; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D009874:Operations Research; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012984:Software / Q000592:standards; D012985:Software Design; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013673:Technology Assessment, Biomedical; D014481:United States; D014584:User-Computer Interface