title: Using a medical simulation center as an electronic health record usability laboratory.
abstract: Usability testing is increasingly being recognized as a way to increase the usability and safety of health information technology (HIT). Medical simulation centers can serve as testing environments for HIT usability studies. We integrated the quality assurance version of our emergency department (ED) electronic health record (EHR) into our medical simulation center and piloted a clinical care scenario in which emergency medicine resident physicians evaluated a simulated ED patient and documented electronically using the ED EHR. Meticulous planning and close collaboration with expert simulation staff was important for designing test scenarios, pilot testing, and running the sessions. Similarly, working with information systems teams was important for integration of the EHR. Electronic tools are needed to facilitate entry of fictitious clinical results while the simulation scenario is unfolding. EHRs can be successfully integrated into existing simulation centers, which may provide realistic environments for usability testing, training, and evaluation of human-computer interactions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Adam B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Landman
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Redden
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Neri
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Poole
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Horsky
authors.forename: Ali S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Raja
authors.forename: Charles N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Pozner
authors.forename: Gordon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schiff
authors.forename: Eric G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Poon
mesh_terms: D057286:Electronic Health Records; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D050316:Medical Order Entry Systems; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D016544:Patient Simulation; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D018511:Systems Integration; D014584:User-Computer Interface
keywords: Electronic health records; Emergency Care Information Systems; Patient Simulation; Pilot Projects; User-computing interface