Cargando…

Assessing the Status Quo of EHR Accessibility, Usability, and Knowledge Dissemination

AIM: This study was performed to better characterize accessibility to electronic health records (EHRs) among informatics professionals in various roles, settings, and organizations across the United States and internationally. BACKGROUND: The EHR landscape has evolved significantly in recent years,...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Khairat, Saif, Coleman, George Cameron, Russomagno, Samantha, Gotz, David
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Ubiquity Press 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6078120/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30094281
http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/egems.228
_version_ 1783345038997061632
author Khairat, Saif
Coleman, George Cameron
Russomagno, Samantha
Gotz, David
author_facet Khairat, Saif
Coleman, George Cameron
Russomagno, Samantha
Gotz, David
author_sort Khairat, Saif
collection PubMed
description AIM: This study was performed to better characterize accessibility to electronic health records (EHRs) among informatics professionals in various roles, settings, and organizations across the United States and internationally. BACKGROUND: The EHR landscape has evolved significantly in recent years, though challenges remain in key areas such as usability. While patient access to electronic health information has gained more attention, levels of access among informatics professionals, including those conducting usability research, have not been well described in the literature. Ironically, many informatics professionals whose aim is to improve EHR design have restrictions on EHR access or publication, which interfere with broad dissemination of findings in areas of usability research. METHODS: To quantify the limitations on EHR access and publication rights, we conducted a survey of informatics professionals from a broad spectrum of roles including practicing clinicians, researchers, administrators, and members of industry. Results were analyzed and levels of EHR access were stratified by role, organizational affiliation, geographic region, EHR type, and restrictions with regard to publishing results of usability testing, including screenshots. RESULTS: 126 respondents completed the survey, representing all major geographic regions in the United States. 71.5 percent of participants reported some level of EHR access, while 13 percent reported no access whatsoever. Rates of no-access were higher among faculty members and researchers (19 percent). Among faculty members and researchers, 72 percent could access the EHR for usability and/or research purposes, but, of those, fewer than 1 in 3 could freely publish screenshots with results of usability testing and half could not publish such data at all. Across users from all roles, only 21 percent reported the ability to publish screenshots freely without restrictions. CONCLUSIONS: This study offers insight into current patterns of EHR accessibility among informatics professionals, highlighting restrictions that limit dissemination of usability research and testing. Further conversations and shared responsibility among the various stakeholders in industry, government, health care organizations, and informatics professionals are vital to continued EHR optimization.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6078120
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2018
publisher Ubiquity Press
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-60781202018-08-09 Assessing the Status Quo of EHR Accessibility, Usability, and Knowledge Dissemination Khairat, Saif Coleman, George Cameron Russomagno, Samantha Gotz, David EGEMS (Wash DC) Empirical Research AIM: This study was performed to better characterize accessibility to electronic health records (EHRs) among informatics professionals in various roles, settings, and organizations across the United States and internationally. BACKGROUND: The EHR landscape has evolved significantly in recent years, though challenges remain in key areas such as usability. While patient access to electronic health information has gained more attention, levels of access among informatics professionals, including those conducting usability research, have not been well described in the literature. Ironically, many informatics professionals whose aim is to improve EHR design have restrictions on EHR access or publication, which interfere with broad dissemination of findings in areas of usability research. METHODS: To quantify the limitations on EHR access and publication rights, we conducted a survey of informatics professionals from a broad spectrum of roles including practicing clinicians, researchers, administrators, and members of industry. Results were analyzed and levels of EHR access were stratified by role, organizational affiliation, geographic region, EHR type, and restrictions with regard to publishing results of usability testing, including screenshots. RESULTS: 126 respondents completed the survey, representing all major geographic regions in the United States. 71.5 percent of participants reported some level of EHR access, while 13 percent reported no access whatsoever. Rates of no-access were higher among faculty members and researchers (19 percent). Among faculty members and researchers, 72 percent could access the EHR for usability and/or research purposes, but, of those, fewer than 1 in 3 could freely publish screenshots with results of usability testing and half could not publish such data at all. Across users from all roles, only 21 percent reported the ability to publish screenshots freely without restrictions. CONCLUSIONS: This study offers insight into current patterns of EHR accessibility among informatics professionals, highlighting restrictions that limit dissemination of usability research and testing. Further conversations and shared responsibility among the various stakeholders in industry, government, health care organizations, and informatics professionals are vital to continued EHR optimization. Ubiquity Press 2018-05-25 /pmc/articles/PMC6078120/ /pubmed/30094281 http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/egems.228 Text en Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Empirical Research
Khairat, Saif
Coleman, George Cameron
Russomagno, Samantha
Gotz, David
Assessing the Status Quo of EHR Accessibility, Usability, and Knowledge Dissemination
title Assessing the Status Quo of EHR Accessibility, Usability, and Knowledge Dissemination
title_full Assessing the Status Quo of EHR Accessibility, Usability, and Knowledge Dissemination
title_fullStr Assessing the Status Quo of EHR Accessibility, Usability, and Knowledge Dissemination
title_full_unstemmed Assessing the Status Quo of EHR Accessibility, Usability, and Knowledge Dissemination
title_short Assessing the Status Quo of EHR Accessibility, Usability, and Knowledge Dissemination
title_sort assessing the status quo of ehr accessibility, usability, and knowledge dissemination
topic Empirical Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6078120/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30094281
http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/egems.228
work_keys_str_mv AT khairatsaif assessingthestatusquoofehraccessibilityusabilityandknowledgedissemination
AT colemangeorgecameron assessingthestatusquoofehraccessibilityusabilityandknowledgedissemination
AT russomagnosamantha assessingthestatusquoofehraccessibilityusabilityandknowledgedissemination
AT gotzdavid assessingthestatusquoofehraccessibilityusabilityandknowledgedissemination