Human Factors and Usability for Health Information Technology: Old and New Challenges

Abstract

Objectives: Despite national mandates, incentives, and other programs, the design of health information technology (IT) remains problematic and usability problems continue to be reported. This paper reviews recent literature on human factors and usability of health IT, with a specific focus on research aimed at applying human factors methods and principles to improve the actual design of health IT, its use, and associated patient and clinician outcomes. Methods: We reviewed recent literature on human factors and usability problems of health IT and research on human-centered design of health IT for clinicians and patients. Results: Studies continue to show usability problems of health IT experienced by multiple groups of health care professionals (e.g., physicians and nurses) as well as patients. Recent research shows that usability is influenced by both designers (e.g., IT vendors) and implementers in health care organizations, and that the application of human-centered design practices needs to be further improved and extended. We welcome emerging research on the design of health IT for teams as team-based care is increasingly implemented throughout health care. Conclusions: Progress in the application of human factors methods and principles to the design of health IT is occurring, with important information provided on their actual impact on care processes and patient outcomes. Future research should examine the work of health IT designers and implementers, which would help to develop strategies for further embedding human factors engineering in IT design processes.

Application of human factors to improve usability of clinical decision support for diagnostic decision-making: a scenario-based simulation study

“…Therefore, a HF-based design that involves analysing the actual work of clinicians, participation from clinicians in the design process and implementation of HF design principles can enhance the usability of health IT such as CDS. As data continue to emerge about poor usability and workflow integration of health IT and adverse patient safety consequences,64 it is essential to integrate HF methods and principles in technology design processes 11 65–68. This is particularly important with the emergence of artificial intelligence, which can be used to design CDS technologies that complement and enhance clinical decision-making 69–71…”

Effect of Prior Health Knowledge on the Usability of Two Home Medical Devices: Usability Study (Preprint)

“…Some of them can be very complex to use [5]. However, if HMDs are poorly designed, there could be user errors that could seriously affect patients' safety [3,[6][7][8][9][10].…”

Avaliação de usabilidade de sistema de apoio à decisão clínica do processo de enfermagem

“…Os problemas de usabilidade nos RES em saúde se estendem a todos os profissionais, incluindo enfermeiros (Carayon, Hoonakker, 2019). Um grupo de 27 especialistas discutiram os problemas de usabilidade enfrentados por enfermeiros e o consenso foi que "os fornecedores atuais ainda não entendem como apoiar o trabalho desses profissionais, seu pensamento crítico e a tomada de decisão" (Staggers et al, 2018).…”

“…Assim, as avaliações de usabilidade dos RES na saúde devem ir além das medidas de satisfação do usuário final, e incluir resultados objetivos como duração da tarefa, número de cliques e resultados clínicos como número de diagnósticos corretos e a tomada de decisão clínica apropriada (Carayon, Hoonakker, 2019).…”

“…Assim, garantem-se a minimização de erros, aumento da qualidade do cuidado e redução de custos (Oliveira, Peres, 2015;Sperandio, 2008) Assim, vislumbrou-se a possibilidade de verticalizar os conhecimentos sobre avalições de usabilidade dos sistemas na enfermagem, pautadas nos conceitos de eficácia, eficiência e satisfação definidos na norma ISO 9241:11 (2018) Embora estudos sobre a implementação de SADC apontem resultados positivos associados à melhoria da qualidade da assistência à saúde e segurança do paciente, pesquisas precisam ser desenvolvidas com o objetivo de identificar os benefícios e evitar resultados negativos na segurança do paciente. É preciso garantir que os sistemas sejam projetados para que se ajustem aos fluxos de trabalho dos enfermeiros e demais profissionais de saúde (Carayon, Hoonakker, 2019).…”