Search

OBJECTIVE: Human and Organizational Factors (HOF) studies in health technology involve human beings and thus require Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval. Yet HOF studies have specific constraints and methods that may not fit standard regulations and IRB practices. Gaining IRB approval may pose difficulties for HOF researchers. This paper aims to provide a first overview of HOF study challenges to get IRB review by exploring differences and best practices across different countries. METHODS: HOF researchers were contacted by email to provide a testimony about their experience with IRB review and approval. Testimonies were thematically analyzed and synthesized to identify and discuss shared themes. RESULTS: Researchers from seven European countries, Argentina, Canada, Australia, and the United States answered the call. Four themes emerged that indicate shared challenges in legislation, IRB inefficiencies and inconsistencies, general regulation and costs, and lack of HOF study knowledge by IRB members. We propose a model for IRB review of HOF studies based on best practices. CONCLUSION: International criteria are needed that define low and high-risk HOF studies, to allow identification of studies that can undergo an expedited (or exempted) process from those that need full IRB review. Enhancing IRB processes in such a way would be beneficial to the conduct of HOF studies. Greater knowledge and promotion of HOF methods and evidence-based HOF study designs may support the evolving discipline. Based on these insights, training and guidance to IRB members may be developed to support them in ensuring that appropriate ethical issues for HOF studies are considered.

In this paper, we report measured usability of two leading EHR systems during procurement. A total of 18 users participated in paired-usability testing of three scenarios: ordering and managing medications by an outpatient physician, medicine administration by an inpatient nurse and scheduling of appointments by nursing staff. Data for audio, screen capture, satisfaction rating, task success and errors made was collected during testing. We found a clear difference between the systems for percentage of successfully completed tasks, two different satisfaction measures and perceived learnability when looking at the results over all scenarios. We conclude that usability should be evaluated during procurement and the difference in usability between systems could be revealed even with fewer measures than were used in our study.

Usability should be considered already by the procuring organizations when selecting future systems. In this paper, we present a framework for usability evaluation during electronic health record (EHR) system procurement. We describe the objectives of the evaluation, the procedure, selected usability attributes and the evaluation methods to measure them. We also present the emphasis usability had in the selection process. We do not elaborate on the details of the results, the application of methods or gathering of data. Instead we focus on the components of the framework to inform and give an example to other similar procurement projects.

This paper describes the development of a questionnaire for evaluating usability during EHR system procurement (DPUQ). Established usability questionnaires can be used to gather user feedback after using the systems. However, during procurement, experimenting with real system use is practical only with a limited number of system candidates. There is a need for less resource-demanding usability evaluation in the early stages of procurement in cases with several vendors. DPUQ has been designed for usability evaluation by end-users during special scenario-based vendor demonstrations. The questionnaire includes three sets of questions to be used during and after the vendor demonstration. DPUQ delivers specific usability scores and can be used to compare system candidates in procurement complementing other evaluation methods.

This paper describes the development of a questionnaire for evaluating usability during EHR system procurement (DPUQ). Established usability questionnaires can be used to gather user feedback after using the systems. However, during procurement, experimenting with real system use is practical only with a limited number of system candidates. There is a need for less resource-demanding usability evaluation in the early stages of procurement in cases with several vendors. DPUQ has been designed for usability evaluation by end-users during special scenario-based vendor demonstrations. The questionnaire includes three sets of questions to be used during and after the vendor demonstration. DPUQ delivers specific usability scores and can be used to compare system candidates in procurement complementing other evaluation methods.

TSR-hanke 114160 loppuraportti