title: The Benefits of a Formative Evaluation for Developing a Highly Innovative Software: The Case of the handoverEHR.
abstract: Innovations are typically characterised by their relative newness for the user. In order for new eHealth applications to be accepted as innovations more criteria were proposed including "use" and "usability". The handoverEHR is a new approach that allows the user to translate the essentials of a clinical case into a graphical representation, the so-called cognitive map of the patient. This study aimed at testing the software usability. A convenience sample of 23 experienced nurses from different healthcare organisations across the country rated the usability of the handoverEHR after performing typical handover tasks. All usability scales of the IsoMetricsLquestionnaire showed positive values (4 "I agree") with the exception of "error tolerance" (3 "neutral statement"). A significant improvement was found in self-descriptiveness as compared to an initial usability testing prior to this study. Different subgroups of users tended to rate the usability of the system differently. This study demonstrated the benefits of formative evaluations in terms of improving the usability of an entirely new approach. It thus helps to transform a novel piece of software towards becoming a real innovation. Our findings also hint at the importance of user characteristics that could affect the usability ratings.
authors: University of applied sciences Osnabrück.
authors: Mareike
authors: M
authors: Przysucha
authors: KSFH München.
authors: Daniel
authors: D
authors: Flemming
authors: University of applied sciences Osnabrück.
authors: Ursula
authors: U
authors: Hübner
mesh_terms: D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D062209:Patient Handoff; D012984:Software / Q000592:standards; D012985:Software Design; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014584:User-Computer Interface