A study that show that the use of electronic health records (with built-in secure messaging capabilities) can reduce the number of office visits for patients that do not need them.  Office visits are the most expensive form of health care delivery (as noted by the NYT).  No mention of any usability issues, however.

Information about KP HealthConnect (the EHR examined in this study) can be found here.

From the abstract:

We examined the impact of implementing a comprehensive electronic health record (EHR) system on ambulatory care use in an integrated health care delivery system with more than 225,000 members. Between 2004 and 2007, the annual age/sex-adjusted total office visit rate decreased 26.2 percent, the adjusted primary care office visit rate decreased 25.3 percent, and the adjusted specialty care office visit rate decreased 21.5 percent. Scheduled telephone visits increased more than eightfold, and secure e-mail messaging, which began in late 2005, increased nearly sixfold by 2007. Introducing an EHR creates operational efficiencies by offering nontraditional, patient-centered ways of providing care.

From the full text:

The 26.2 percent reduction in office visits indicates greater efficiency of care with an integrated EHR. With complete patient data available, unnecessary and marginally productive office visits are reduced or replaced with telephone visits and secure e-mail messaging supported by easy access to patients’ medical records. For example, doctors reported that the EHR enabled them to resolve patients’ health issues in the first contact or with fewer contacts. In sum, our study strongly suggests that an integrated and comprehensive EHR shifts the pattern of ambulatory care toward more-efficient contacts for patients and providers while at least maintaining quality of care and patient satisfaction.

[Health Affairs via the New York Times, thanks to Margaux for sending it in]

[Ed: the post image is a generic EMR/EHR and is not the system examined in the study]

Similar Posts (auto-generated):

{ 2 comments }

Slate.com has a nice article on the difference between U.S. exit signs and the rest of the world, as well as a nice history of the evolution of the symbols.  Here is an excerpt to get you interested:

The text-based American exit sign has its origins in the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, a blaze in a downtown Manhattan garment factory that killed 146 workers. Although signage was not primarily to blame for those fatalities—many factory doors were bolted shut in an effort to keep employees from slipping out—the exits were not clearly marked. That massive loss of life spurred the National Fire Protection Association, which had been founded in 1896 by insurance companies to develop protocols for property preservation, to take up what it called “life safety”: the business of getting people out of burning buildings intact. In the 1930s and ’40s, the NFPA developed criteria for emergency-exit signage, evaluating contrast levels and testing different sizes and stroke widths for lettering, eventually publishing standards that were adopted by state and local governments across the land.

Similar Posts (auto-generated):

{ 2 comments }

Complex Clickers in Class

by Richard Pak
Thumbnail image for Complex Clickers in Class

I will be teaching general psychology to a large undergraduate class this Fall.  I had planned on using the “Clicker” to encourage interaction with students (link to company that makes them, wikipedia page that describes them).  They are essentially remote controls that allow the instructor to record votes from students.  For example, I could present a multiple choice question to [...]

Read the full article →

HF Potpourri

by Richard Pak
Thumbnail image for HF Potpourri

Touch Usability’s Kevin Arthur is soliciting input for a presentation he’s doing at UPA
Designing for Human’s Rob Tannen posts an online video of a presentation (ergonomics for interaction designers) he gave at the School of Visual Arts in New York
Edward Tufte will help us understand and track where stimulus funds are going (via Slashdot)
The Internet does not replace health professionals.  [...]

Read the full article →

Human Factors Blog @ SXSW

by Richard Pak
Thumbnail image for Human Factors Blog @ SXSW

Anne was invited to be a panelist at SXSW on Friday, March 12 at 05:00 PM.  SXSW is a yearly music, movie, and interactive media festival held in Austin, TX.  The title of the interactive panel is With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: The Future of Video Games. Here is a description:
Video games are more popular than ever, and [...]

Read the full article →

Making virtual worlds more accessible – a new context area for Human Factors

by Anne McLaughlin
Thumbnail image for Making virtual worlds more accessible – a new context area for Human Factors

The Consumerist blog (of Consumer Reports) posted an article on the state of California suing Sony because their online Playstation services were not accessibly designed.
Quoted from The Consumerist post:
At the crux of the plaintiff’s failed case was their contention that, because PlayStation allows people all over the world to connect and play games together via their now-repaired PlayStation Network, that [...]

Read the full article →

HF and Medical Device Workshop (again) in April 2010

by Richard Pak

John Gosbee sends along this announcement of an upcoming workshop on medical human factors:
Those readers who want to know more about the practical and regulatory aspects of  human factors and device design might be interested in our workshop (or the approach we use). Our writings and this workshop continue a decades long effort to bring the HF and healthcare worlds [...]

Read the full article →

UXURLS: A usability news aggregator

by Richard Pak

Harry Brignull has created a convenient news aggregator for user experience and usability news from around the web.  A nice one-stop shop.

Similar Posts (auto-generated):

Visualizing election news
STFU Usability Protocol
Crowdsourced Usability II: Mozilla Test Pilot
Quick note: Usability of Electronic Health Records

Share/Save

Read the full article →

Careers in Human Factors & Aging

by Richard Pak

A graduate student contacted me with questions about career paths for those of us in HF with an aging background.  This sounded like a great opportunity for discussion so I’m posting it here.  If you can contribute responses to any or all of these questions, please leave a comment!
I am giving a presentation on the Aging Technical Group [of the [...]

Read the full article →

Redesigning Toyota’s Keyless Ignition System

by Richard Pak
Thumbnail image for Redesigning Toyota’s Keyless Ignition System

The LA Times reporters Ken Bensinger and Ralph Vartabedian recently wrote a story about keyless ignition systems and the associated HF issues (we blogged about it here).  In a follow-up story, they report that Toyota is considering redesigning the system so that instead of requiring a single 3-second press to shut off the engine, it now requires 3 consecutive [...]

Read the full article →

Visual Search and Airport Security Screening

by Anne McLaughlin
Thumbnail image for Visual Search and Airport Security Screening

Funny I should have mentioned conjunction search the other day, since this post is all about new research by Jeremy Wolfe who has and continues to contribute to the visual search literature.
In this new work, already mentioned on i09, Wolfe and his former research assistant Michael van Wert investigated complex visual search as it applies to baggage scanning at airport [...]

Read the full article →

Dissecting the iPad’s User Interface

by Richard Pak
Thumbnail image for Dissecting the iPad’s User Interface

This Flickr image set does a nice job of pointing out the unique UI elements of the iPad.  Much of the interface is adapted from Apple’s extensive work on the iPhone but there are several unique elements.
Say what you will about Apple (positive or negative) but their tight reign on software and hardware and extreme focus on details really shows.
On [...]

Read the full article →

HF Graduate Programs: North Carolina State University

by Anne McLaughlin
Thumbnail image for HF Graduate Programs: North Carolina State University

This is the second post in our 2-part look at some HF programs.  Rich’s post about Clemson’s program can be found here.

The psychology graduate program at NCSU in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.A, boasts eight faculty in the Human Factors and Ergonomics specialization. This is in addition to the faculty in our sister program in Industrial Engineering and related faculty in [...]

Read the full article →

The Spatial Demands of Assembly Instructions

by Anne McLaughlin
Thumbnail image for The Spatial Demands of Assembly Instructions

I purchased a “build it yourself” cabinet over the internet, naively thinking that it couldn’t be too complicated if they really expected me to assemble it. Boy, was I wrong.
Take these instructions for example:
“Tap in post with a hammer to start and screw down with a screwdriver or with a small allen wrench until the shoulder of the post hits [...]

Read the full article →

This does not bode well for the on-device user experience…

by Richard Pak
Thumbnail image for This does not bode well for the on-device user experience…

Gizmodo reviewed the Nook e-book reader from Barnes & Noble. Unfortunately (for B&N), the process of opening the package was so cumbersome, most of the review dwells on that aspect:
In other words, the Nook packaging actually necessitates these lengthy instructions, as ridiculous as they are in their own right. Somehow, Barnes & Noble invented a box that’s [...]

Read the full article →

Similar Medical Bottles Strike Again: Flu Shots and Insulin

by Anne McLaughlin
Thumbnail image for Similar Medical Bottles Strike Again: Flu Shots and Insulin

One of this blogs most popular posts concerned the similarity of adult and pediatric containers for the blood thinner Heparin.  A story from 2008 concerns the mix up between “nearly identical” bottles of flu vaccine and insulin. When you don’t have high blood sugar, a shot of insulin is serious business and sends you straight to the hospital.
Five Bedford County [...]

Read the full article →