A continuous usability evaluation of an electronic medication administration record application.

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Nursing Informatics

Background:

• Electronic medication administration records (eMAR) complexity is often underestimated, leading to usability issues.
• Poor eMAR design can negatively impact nursing activities and patient outcomes.
• Evaluating eMAR usability during development is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the usability of an eMAR application during its development lifecycle.
• To identify and mitigate usability problems in an eMAR system.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-methods approach combining heuristic evaluation and usability testing.
• Two hospital pharmacists conducted heuristic evaluations on multiple eMAR versions.
• Usability testing involved observing nurses interacting with the final eMAR version.

Main Results:

• Thirty-four eMAR versions were assessed before achieving usability.
• Heuristic evaluation reduced unique usability problems from 46 to 9 and heuristic violations from 154 to 27.
• The average severity rating of usability problems decreased significantly, and no new issues were found during final testing.

Conclusions:

• Heuristic evaluation is an effective method for developing usable eMAR applications.
• This evaluation process successfully identified and resolved key areas for improvement.
• The study demonstrates a significant reduction in eMAR usability problems and their severity.