Human Factors and Usability in Health IT
Whether health information technology helps or harms care depends heavily on how well it fits the people and work systems that use it. This entry introduces human factors engineering and usability as applied to health IT: how interfaces, workflows, and work systems are designed and evaluated so that technology supports clinicians and patients rather than creating new errors and burden.
Definition
Human factors and usability in health IT is the application of human factors engineering and usability science to the design and evaluation of health information technology, aiming to make systems effective, efficient, and satisfying to use within the clinical work system and thereby to support safe, high-quality care.
Scope
The topic covers usability concepts and evaluation for health IT, human factors and ergonomics frameworks such as work-system models, and the link between poor usability and patient-safety and clinician-burden problems. It is reference material on design and evaluation principles, not a usability testing protocol or clinical guidance.
Core questions
- What makes a health IT system usable, and how is usability evaluated?
- How do human factors and ergonomics frameworks describe the clinical work system?
- How does poor usability contribute to errors, workarounds, and clinician burden?
- How can design and evaluation methods improve health IT?
Key concepts
- Usability (effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction)
- Human factors engineering and ergonomics
- Sociotechnical work system
- Usability evaluation methods (heuristic, usability testing)
- Workarounds and unintended consequences
- Alert fatigue and clinician burden
Key theories
- SEIPS work-system model
- The Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety model frames care as a work system of persons, tasks, tools and technology, environment, and organisation that shapes processes and outcomes, placing technology design within the wider sociotechnical system rather than in isolation.
Clinical relevance
Usability problems in health IT are associated with workarounds, new types of error, and clinician burnout, so attention to human factors is part of designing safer systems. This entry describes those relationships as reference material and does not prescribe how a specific system should be redesigned or used.
Evidence & guidelines
Professional recommendations call for improving the usability of electronic health record systems to enhance patient safety and quality of care (Middleton et al., 2013), and human factors frameworks such as the SEIPS work-system model provide a basis for analysing and improving health IT in its organisational context (Carayon et al., 2006; Carayon, 2013).
History
Human factors and ergonomics, long applied in aviation and industry, were brought into health care from the 1990s and 2000s as evidence accumulated that technology and work-system design influence patient safety. Work-system models such as SEIPS formalised this sociotechnical view, and as electronic health records spread, professional bodies issued usability recommendations in response to mounting reports of usability-related harm and burden (Carayon et al., 2006; Middleton et al., 2013; Carayon, 2013).
Debates
- Does usability or implementation context matter more for safe health IT?
- Some emphasise improving interface usability through design standards and testing, while sociotechnical perspectives argue that the surrounding work system and implementation often determine outcomes more than the interface alone; both threads inform current practice.
Key figures
- Pascale Carayon
- Ben-Tzion Karsh
- Blackford Middleton
- Jiajie Zhang
Related topics
Seminal works
- carayon-2006
- middleton-2013
Frequently asked questions
- What does usability mean for a health IT system?
- It refers to how effectively, efficiently, and satisfyingly intended users can accomplish their tasks with the system; poor usability can cause errors, workarounds, and frustration even when the system is technically functional.
- What is the SEIPS model?
- The Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety model is a human factors framework that views health care as a work system made up of persons, tasks, tools and technology, environment, and organisation, all of which shape care processes and outcomes.