Usability Of EHRs Remains A Priority For ONC

The New Year is a time of reflection and anticipation. We reflect on what went well in the past (and perhaps what didn’t go so well); we anticipate future challenges and accomplishments. 

As I reflect on the past, I can see that we’ve accomplished incredible things together.  The majority of care provided in United States hospitals and medical offices is conducted with the assistance of information technology. Our care is safer, more efficient, and provides research and measurement opportunities that were simply impossible with paper systems.

But as a physician who has used an EHR in my clinical life since 2001, I worry that some of the usability challenges that we early adopters tolerated “for now” (a decade ago) remain unresolved.

This is a problem.