Compliance with design principles: a case study of a widely used laboratory information system

Abstract

Background: Laboratory information systems are widely used health information systems that have the potential to improve health care quality. Despite their benefits, many studies have indicated problems with user interaction with these systems due to poor interface design. Aims: To evaluate the usability of a laboratory information system. Methods: In this descriptive, cross-sectional study, we used heuristic evaluation to examine the user interface design of a laboratory information system in an academic hospital affiliated with Kerman University of Medical Sciences in 2017. This system is also used in 59 other Iranian hospitals .We investigated the usability of different parts of the usability of a laboratory information system (outpatient admission, inpatient admission, sample collection, and test result reporting). Data were collected using a standard form based on the heuristic evaluation method, and categorized based on their severity and violated heuristics. The content validity was confirmed by 3 medical informatics specialists. Results: We identified 162 usability problems. In terms of the heuristics, the highest number of problems concerned flexibility and efficiency of use (n = 32, 19.75%) and the lowest concerned help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors (n = 2, 1.23%). In terms of different modules of the system, the highest number of problems (n = 51, 31.48%) concerned outpatient admission and the lowest (n = 29, 17.9%) concerned sample collection. In terms of severity, 45.06% of the problems were rated as major. Conclusions: Despite widespread use of laboratory information systems, their user interface design has usability problems that diminish the quality of user interaction with these systems and may affect the quality of health care. Consideration of standards and principles for user interface design, such as the heuristics used in this study, could improve system usability.

Development and Usability Evaluation of a Web-Based Health Information Technology Dashboard of Quality and Economic Indicators

“…However, it's crucial to minimize errors resulting from their use [34]. These systems are widely employed, and their usability is an essential feature that simplifies their usage [14].…”

“…Otherwise, non-integrated systems might derive dissatisfaction among users or even be abandoned [13]. Monitoring dashboards and health information systems regularly will help find problems, prevent mistakes, and enable accurate problem-solving [14].…”

Usability Testing: A Bibliometric Analysis Based on WoS Data

“…[10,[13][14][15][16] Therefore, addressing usability issues in health information systems is crucial to prevent unintended adverse effects. [17] Consequently, usability testing is an established practice in HIT development. [6] Despite the substantial volume of recent research on usability testing, as of our knowledge, no bibliometric analysis on this topic has been published.…”