A few days ago ProPublica had a headline I wished I'd written: If It Needs A Sign, It's Probably Bad Design. Although the article started with a health care example (EpiPen of course, citing Joyce Lee's brilliant post), it wasn't focused on health care -- but it might as well have been. Health care is full of bad design, and of signs. Take, for example, the waiting room. When most patients enter a provider's office or facility, the first thing they are likely to see is a waiting room. The waiting room probably has other would-be patients already waiting there, each full of their own health concerns. In some instances, the initial waiting room is merely a staging area; once processed, patients may be sent to yet another waiting room to wait some more. And, of course, once they eventually do reach an exam room, they'll probably endure some more waiting, no matter how long their wait has already been...
usability
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NSTIC Workplan Available In Advance Of Implementation Meetings
The Identity Ecosystem Steering Group published a formal "workplan" (.pdf) Aug. 3 for implementing the White House's National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, or NSTIC. The workplan comes in advance of the first meeting of the Steering Group in Chicago, Aug. 15 and 16. Read More »
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ONC Details Plan to Improve Data Standards, Big Data Analytics
ONC has proposed several pieces of legislation promoting better and more effective data standards for health information exchange, which would help to support the use of healthcare big data analytics to improve patient care. According to a recent blog post published by ONC’s Karen Desalvo and Lisa Lewis, the agency has proposed several pieces of legislation in an effort to keep pace with the quick evolution of healthcare IT...
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ONC Head Dr. Donald Rucker Addresses open API's, Interoperability and Usability During WEDI Keynote
Earlier this month, the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), the nation’s leading nonprofit authority on the use of health IT to create efficiencies in healthcare information exchange and a trusted advisor to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), held its 2017 Summer Forum which featured keynote addresses by Donald W. Rucker, MD, head of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC/HHS) and Madhu Annadata, director, Division of National Standards, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)...
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OpenSpecimen Streamlines Management of Biospecimen Data
OpenSpecimen is an open source biobanking informatics platform that permits users to enter and retrieve data concerning the collection, storage, quality assurance, and distribution of biospecimens. Its most important feature is the ability to collect high-quality, standards-based data specific to a disease or set of study requirements. OpenSpecimen, previously known as caTissue, was initially developed with U.S. National Cancer Institute funding under the caBIG program. When the caBIG program closed down in 2011, Krishagni Solutions continued the development and support of caTissue while maintaining the open source nature of the product. In 2014, Krishagni renamed the product to OpenSpecimen to indicate that the product can support any disease (i.e. not just cancer) and any specimen type (i.e. not just tissue)...
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Physician Outcry On EHR Functionality, Cost Will Shake The Health Information Technology Sector
Despite the government’s bribe of nearly $27 billion to digitize patient records, nearly 70% of physicians say electronic health record (EHR) systems have not been worth it. It’s a sobering statistic backed by newly released data from marketing and research firm MPI Group and Medical Economics that suggest nearly two-thirds of doctors would not purchase their current EHR system again because of poor functionality and high costs. Read More »
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Physicians Air EHR Frustrations
[...] Clearly, some docs are having trouble with meaningful use. Indeed, as William S Underwood, senior associate at the American College of Physicians, noted in an education session Tuesday at HIMSS13, there's been a 15 percent increase in reports that practices are "very dissatisfied" with their EHRs since 2010. Read More »
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Popular Mobile Health Apps Fail to Serve Vulnerable Populations
A new UC San Francisco study of top-rated mobile health apps showed that they offer little help to vulnerable patients – those who might benefit the most from these tools. The new study, published in the July 14, 2016 online issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, was conducted with 26 patients at The Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (ZSFG), a UCSF partner hospital that treats many low-income patients. Although participant income was not directly queried, a majority of patients at ZSFG qualify for publically funded insurance, or do not have insurance.
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Research Raises Questions About App Usability, Accessibility
While mobile health apps have the potential to help patients better manage their chronic conditions, consumers that would benefit most—the poor and minorities—are not able to access and use the technology to realize the benefits. That’s the finding of a new observational study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine researching the impact of apps developed to enable adults to manage their chronic conditions...
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Resolutions On EHR Usability, ROI: A Welcome Relief, Or Just Lip Service?
I read with great interest this week's proposals to improve electronic health records in the new year. First we have Jacob Reider, Acting National Coordinator for Health IT, who published a blog post on Jan. 6 acknowledging that EHR usability continues to be an unresolved issue that remains a priority for ONC. [...] Read More »
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Sequenom Chose Open Source EDC System ClinCapture For Cost Efficiency And Team Commitment
San Diego-Based Medical Device Company Sequenom Highlights Cost Savings and Team Responsiveness Using ClinCapture, Clinovo’s Open Source Electronic Data Capture (EDC) System Read More »
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Solving Design Problems in Healthcare Starting with the Waiting Room
The 5 Traits of a Usable EMR
There are several factors inhibiting EMR adoption, but the concept of usability is often at the root, and rightfully so. Although effective training and implementation methods affect user adoption rates as well, poor usability has a strong impact on productivity, error rate, and user satisfaction. Read More »
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The Cure Project Aims To Give Providers A Place At The HIT Table
Anyone wondering where the #EHRbacklash hashtag might be headed may have found some clarity at HIMSS13. The man behind the Twitter hashtag, Mosaica Partners vice president Bob Brown, along with Steven Waldren, MD, senior strategist for the American Academy of Family Physician's Center for Health IT, are spreading word about The Cure Project. Read More »
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The Goldilocks Problem of Mobile Security - Usability vs. Security
The “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” story begins with a girl tasting porridge. The first bowl is too hot, the second is too cold, and the third is “just right.” This article considers mobile device security for government and organizations. The theme is trade-offs between the usability of a mobile device and security for confidential organizational data such as conversations, messages, documents, images, and locations. The security, confidentiality, and integrity of communication are key. However, if the usability of mobile devices for end-users, administrators, and organizations is too challenging, then the availability of the data for productive work is lost.
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