Previously submitted to: Journal of Medical Internet Research (no longer under consideration since Aug 21, 2020)
Date Submitted: Mar 12, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Qualitative Methods for Healthcare Professionals to Evaluate Electronic Health Records: An Ophthalmology Use Case
ABSTRACT
Background:
Despite the widespread adoption of EHR globally, there has been increasing dissatisfaction amongst end users about the usability of such technology. To overcome this problem, a variety of frameworks have been published in the United States and the United Kingdom for usability testing. However, these are often overly complex, making it difficult for healthcare professionals (HCP) to engage with the process of usability testing
Objective:
To describe evidence based qualitative methods for the evaluation of electronic health records (EHR) for HCPs.
Methods:
We conducted a review of current qualitative usability methodologies, based on the National Centre for Human Factors in Healthcare EHR framework. Ophthalmology is used as use case for the application of these methods
Results:
We identified several qualitative methodologies that could be used at the major stages of EHR evaluation. These include: 1) Tools for User Centered Design: Shadowing and autoethnography, semi structured interviews and questionnaires 2) Tools for Summative Testing: Card sort and reverse card sort, retrospective think aloud protocol, wireframing, screenshot testing and heatmaps
Conclusions:
High yield, low fidelity tools can be used to engage HCPs with the process of usability testing of EHR, increasing end user satisfaction. These methods can be used by HCPs without the requirement for prior training in usability science, and by clinical centers without significant technical requirements.
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