2. The Need for Innovation
in EMR Design
• The required or expected functionality of
EMRs is increasing
• Concerns over usability have been
longstanding and will be exacerbated as
functionality grows more complex
11. Workflow Wizard
• Goal was to support multiple workflows for
each user type based on
– Role (e.g., MD, RN, Dietitian)
– Training Level (e.g., Attending, Resident, Student)
– Specific Permissions
• Creates a Wizard-like guide for each
19. Screen Real Estate
• At outset of development process, set aside
an untouchable area of screen real estate
• Area was envisioned for a variety of
information needs but was not instantiated
for > 1 year
23. Concurrent Access
• Our previous system did not allow multiple
users performing actions on the chart
simultaneously
• Sought to allow this behavior while
maintaining patient safety and avoiding
database conflicts
36. Overview
• Overview of Application Design Process
• From Theory to Reality: Designing the G3
Physician Order Entry System
• Challenges and Lessons Learned
• Discussion
42. Conceptual Design
• Conceptual Model
– a description of the proposed system in terms of a
set of integrated ideas and concepts about what it
should do, behave, and look like
– Includes artifacts, relationships, workflows
– Seek to communicate and match developer’s
mental model to user’s mental model
43. Conceptualizing the Interface
• Interface Metaphor
– Combine familiar concepts and
representations, leverage existing ideas and known
solutions
• Interface Mode
–
–
–
–
Instructing
Conversing
Manipulating
Exploring
• Interface Paradigm
– Desktop, mobile, wearable, ubiquitous, etc
44.
45. User Centered Design Methods
• Personas
– hypothetical archetypes of real people
– derived from field research on users
• Scenarios
– fictional story describing a user’s interaction with the
application to achieve one or more goals
– Incorporates personas and their environment
• Use Cases
– Generic description of action-response functionality
of a system, does not incorporate particulars of a user
46. Prototyping
• Low Fidelity
– Purposely non-realistic, encourages ideas and
rapid iteration
• High Fidelity
– Increased similarity to final product
– Provides better sense of the user experience
47. Usability Testing
• From prototypes to early stage development
• Test early, Test often
– 3-5 users sufficient
• Cognitive Walkthrough
– Scenarios / Task Analysis
– Think-aloud
– Interviews
50. Theory to Reality
• Regenstrief has maintained a CPOE at Wishard
Hospital for >30 years
51. Updating a Classic
• The Gopher system has been used by
thousands of physicians
• Its developers iterated on the system for
decades, enhancing its
functionality, usability, and speed
• Gopher-based research provided much of the
seminal knowledge on CPOE and CDS
• While beloved, DOS-based Gopher is headed
for retirement at the end of 2011
53. G3 Requirements
• Formal Requirements
• Functional, Usability, and User Experience
Goals
• Workflow
54. Initial Conceptual Design for Ordering
• Interface Metaphors
– e-Commerce / “Order Cart”
– Web-style Navigation for workflow
– Streams (a la Twitter) for additional information
• Interface Type
– Instructing
• Interface Paradigm
– Desktop
– Do not rule out mobile
93. Lessons Learned
• Define requirements clearly up front
• Generate detailed specifications
• Gives developers ownership of tasks and
sense of impact of project
• Respect roles and process
• Test with users frequently, iterate based on
evidence, avoid capricious changes
94. Lessons Learned
•
•
•
•
•
•
Simple things can be very hard
Brilliant things can be very easy
Don’t lose the forest for the trees
Grow small
Embrace your failures
Innovation matters, whatever they say