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Usability Evaluation of Laboratory and Radiology Information Systems Integrated into a Hospital Information System

  • Systems-Level Quality Improvement
  • Published:
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Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the usability of widely used laboratory and radiology information systems. Three usability experts independently evaluated the user interfaces of Laboratory and Radiology Information Systems using heuristic evaluation method. They applied Nielsen’s heuristics to identify and classify usability problems and Nielsen’s severity rating to judge their severity. Overall, 116 unique heuristic violations were identified as usability problems. In terms of severity, 67 % of problems were rated as major and catastrophic. Among 10 heuristics, “consistency and standards” was violated most frequently. Moreover, mean severity of problems concerning “error prevention” and “help and documentation” heuristics was higher than of the others. Despite widespread use of specific healthcare information systems, they suffer from usability problems. Improving the usability of systems by following existing design standards and principles from the early phased of system development life cycle is recommended. Especially, it is recommended that the designers design systems that inhibit the initiation of erroneous actions and provide sufficient guidance to users.

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Acknowledgments

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

The authors would like to thank Amirabbas Azizi for its assistance in the study.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Student Research Committee, Department of Medical Informatics, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

    Ehsan Nabovati & Hasan Vakili-Arki

  2. Department of Health Information Management/Technology, School of Allied Health Professions, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Iran, Iran

    Ehsan Nabovati

  3. Department of Medical Informatics, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

    Saeid Eslami

  4. Medical Informatics Research Centre, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

    Reza Khajouei

  5. Department of Health Information Management and Technology, Faculty of Management and Medical Information Sciences, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

    Reza Khajouei

  6. Pharmaceutical Research Center, School of Pharmacy, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

    Saeid Eslami

  7. Medical Informatics Research Center, Islamic Republic Blvd, after Farhangian intersection, PO Box: 7618868368, Kerman, Iran

    Reza Khajouei

Authors
  1. Ehsan Nabovati
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  2. Hasan Vakili-Arki
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  3. Saeid Eslami
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  4. Reza Khajouei
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Reza Khajouei.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Systems-Level Quality Improvement

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Nabovati, E., Vakili-Arki, H., Eslami, S. et al. Usability Evaluation of Laboratory and Radiology Information Systems Integrated into a Hospital Information System. J Med Syst 38, 35 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-014-0035-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-014-0035-z

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