business
EMR usability to be examined
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Feb. 27, 2012
The usability of electronic medical records will be the focus of a project being launched by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
In a Feb. 14 announcement in the Federal Register, NIST asked EMR vendors to send their products to the agency so it can research ways to evaluate a system's usability. As part of the evaluation, it plans to assess the systems' instructions, documentation and error messages.
The project aims to "develop a framework for assessing the usability of health IT systems" and to develop guidelines for EMR user interface designs, according to the notice. The agency said it plans to report any potential usability problems to the appropriate participating EMR vendors. The project is expected to take about a year.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/02/27/bibf0227.htm.