Virtually anyone reading this blog has strong opinions on how to build usable health IT and what it the final product should look like. Now and then, though, I still think it’s worth tossing out somebody else’s version to see whether it adds to the conversation.
In that spirit, via Healthcare IT News, I bring you some of the views of Joe Condurso, president and CEO of health IT vendor PatientSafe. Condurso, whose company works to marry consumer mobile trends with enterprise clinical IT, offered the following recommendations on building usable HIT:
* Responds to context: A good system must “run on contextual analytics,” Condurso told HIN. “It’s connected to the back end, connected to all of the policies and procedures [an organization] is trying to implement, but were stuck in a three ring binder.”
* Slips into existing processes: If health IT goes with, not against existing workflow, that makes it easier for it to generate documentation for clinicians. In his view, well-designed technology “fortifies and creates all of t he documentation on the back end,” saving physicians time and effort.
* Is mobile: This one’s a no brainer: since physicians these days have a mobile workflow, health IT needs to go mobile. He notes that mobile tech doesn’t just allow clinicians to compute on the fly, it also means that when, say, a nurse needs to find a doctor, they don’t need to go on a safari to find them physically.
* Starts from mobile design: Condurso believes health IT UIs should start from mobile designs, then move up from there. “The UI has to be able to yield important information and synthesize that in a small screen format,” he says. “You have to start with mobile and build up.”
So there you have it: a few more UI ideas to toss onto the conversational fire. I particularly liked Condurso’s notion that UI design should start mobile and work upward. What about you?
