Paper Calls for Collection of Health IT User Data
When you search for a new car, where would you start? You might read owner reviews of certain models on the web.
Now what if you wanted to learn about a health information technology (IT) product such as an electronic health record (EHR) system? Where could you get user feedback?
The short answer, according to a new “discussion paper” released by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), is nowhere.
“There is currently no place for health IT users to share publicly the experiences they have had with their health IT products,” reads the paper, Comparative User Experiences of Health IT Products: How User Experiences Would Be Reported and Used. “A database of user experience, including identification of new safety risks, would provide organizations with suggestions for ways to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and safety of implementation.”
The report, available as a PDF here, follows a workshop held by IOM where experts concluded that sharing user experiences has the potential to cut down on high implementation costs, help users pick the right product, and improve patient safety.
No place to share information is only part of the problem, according to the paper. “At present, some vendors prohibit users from sharing screenshots and otherwise effectively communicating with others about a problem with an EHR,” the authors say.
Barriers to sharing usability problems include users’ fear of retribution, vendors’ fear of liability, and the time required to generate a report.
The paper strongly suggests that if vendors and other stakeholders don’t do something to share such information voluntarily, they may face more government regulation.
“A voluntary multi-modal, multi-stakeholder approach to health IT safety reporting and communication may deter a more heavy-handed approach to regulating health IT vendors,” the paper reads. “Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration is a serious possibility on the horizon if improvement in health IT safety and usability is not achieved through a voluntary process.”
The authors offer these recommendations:
- Launch a single website hosted by a trusted government entity such as the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to serve as a hub for user experiences.
- Abandon nondisclosure clauses in many contracts between vendor and purchaser. “If clinicians are unable to inform each other of problems with their health IT products, the entire framework of knowledge exchange collapses,” the report reads.
- Develop meaningful metrics of the user experience, such as “time required to perform tasks, and implementation experience,” the report reads.
The authors of the paper are: Christine A. Sinsky, Medical Associates Clinic and Health Plans; Jason Hess, KLAS; Ben-Tzion Karsh, University of Wisconsin; James P. Keller, ECRI Institute; and Ross Koppel, University of Pennsylvania.
The paper is a follow-up of sorts to an IOM report released in November 2011 that examined health IT and patient safety. To access that report, click here.
Posted: October 29, 2012