title: Barriers to comparing the usability of electronic health records.
abstract: Despite the widespread adoption of electronic health records (EHRs), usability of many EHRs continues to be suboptimal, with some vendors failing to meet usability standards, resulting in clinician frustration and patient safety hazards. In an effort to increase EHR vendor competition on usability, recommendations have been made and legislation drafted to develop comparison tools that would allow purchasers to better understand the usability of EHR products prior to purchase. Usability comparison can be based on EHR vendor design and development processes, vendor usability testing as part of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology certification program, and usability of implemented products. Barriers exist within the current certified health technology program that prevent effective comparison of usability during each of these stages. We describe the importance of providing purchasers with improved information about EHR usability, barriers to making usability comparisons, and solutions to overcome these barriers.
authors: National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare, MedStar Health, and Department of Emergency Medicine, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC.
authors: Raj M
authors: RM
authors: Ratwani
authors: National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare, MedStar Health, and Department of Emergency Medicine, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC.
authors: A Zachary
authors: AZ
authors: Hettinger
authors: National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare, MedStar Health, and Department of Emergency Medicine, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC.
authors: Rollin J
authors: RJ
authors: Fairbanks
mesh_terms: D003132:Commerce; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D014584:User-Computer Interface
keywords: EHR safety; EHR usability; policy