Clinician user involvement in the real world: Designing an electronic tool to improve interprofessional communication and collaboration in a hospital setting

• Published in: International journal of medical informatics (Shannon, Ireland) Vol. 110; pp. 90 - 97
• Main Authors: Tang, Terence, Lim, Morgan E., Mansfield, Elizabeth, McLachlan, Alexander, Quan, Sherman D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ireland Elsevier B.V 01.02.2018
• Subjects: Academic Medical Centers; Communication; Health Information Systems - statistics & numerical data; Health Personnel - standards; Hospital communication system; Hospitals - standards; Humans; Interprofessional Relations; Medical Informatics - standards; Software; Software design; User involvement; User-Computer Interface; Workflow; User involvement; Hospital communication system; Software design
• ISSN: 1386-5056; 1872-8243
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2017.11.011

•Involving users in design can improve success of health information technology.•User-centered design, user co-design, and participatory design are ways to involve users.•Using Agile development method can turn designs into usable system quickly.•Challenges exist in involving users and further research is needed. User involvement is vital to the success of health information technology implementation. However, involving clinician users effectively and meaningfully in complex healthcare organizations remains challenging. The objective of this paper is to share our real-world experience of applying a variety of user involvement methods in the design and implementation of a clinical communication and collaboration platform aimed at facilitating care of complex hospitalized patients by an interprofessional team of clinicians. We designed and implemented an electronic clinical communication and collaboration platform in a large community teaching hospital. The design team consisted of both technical and healthcare professionals. Agile software development methodology was used to facilitate rapid iterative design and user input. We involved clinician users at all stages of the development lifecycle using a variety of user-centered, user co-design, and participatory design methods. Thirty-six software releases were delivered over 24 months. User involvement has resulted in improvement in user interface design, identification of software defects, creation of new modules that facilitated workflow, and identification of necessary changes to the scope of the project early on. A variety of user involvement methods were complementary and benefited the design and implementation of a complex health IT solution. Combining these methods with agile software development methodology can turn designs into functioning clinical system to support iterative improvement.