Mental Workload Relating Health Information System - A Literature Review

Assessing Mental Workload related to Health Information Systems can help to analyze weak points of the use of Health Information Systems and in health care work processes. Our objectives were to give an overview of current research and applied measurement methods as well as gaining insights into influencing factors of mental workload on the use of health information systems and vice versa.

We applied a structured literature research by searching for "mental workload" on PubMed. Studies were included into our review if they assessed related to Health Information Systems.

The research in PubMed led to 124 articles, resulting in 17 papers taken into in-depth analyses. We identified three categories referring to different study design types. Additionally, articles showed that mental workload was influenced by using health information systems and vice versa.

The review was limited to only one database but revealed that future research with sociotechnical focus including mental workload is necessary.

In contrast to the high relevance only a few articles address mental workload in Health Information systems. The quality of the studies in terms of evidence and external validity appears to be largely in need of development and should be improved in ongoing research.