Computers, Medicine, Usability, viewed from the ED
If you're new here, you might like to look through this introduction to the site first.
Are you interested in how computers can reduce medical error?
Did you know that many early medical computer systems increased medical error? (Some current ones, too.)
From your own experience with your own computer at home, do you think that some computers and programs crash on a regular basis? Do you think that most software is hard to use, rude, and frustrating to work with? Based on experience, what you’ve heard, or simple extrapolation, do you suspect that medical computer systems are even worse?
Did you know that the best place to test medical computer systems is the ED, because people working in the ED don’t have the time to deal with bad computer systems, and are intolerant of BS? (If it works in the ED, you can make it work anywhere else in the hospital.)
Do you want to learn more about how to make medical computer systems usable, so as to prevent medical error?
If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” then read through the Medical Computing series. Although looked at from my viewpoint in the ED, it all applies to medical computer systems wherever they are used, in a hospital, in a clinic or in an office.
If you need a backgrounder on Healthcare IT concepts and terminology, see Healthcare IT in a Nutshell.
There’s also a series of “word” essays that focus on particular and generally more advanced medical computer issues.
To keep up with new postings, you might want to subscribe to my RSS feed.
One final note: Once explained, most of the suggestions on this site seem simple and obvious. But as one is creating a program, or even as one is using a program with a high level of frustration, they are still not obvious until pointed out.
I hope you find the site informative and, perhaps, a bit mind-expandingly entertaining.
Keith Conover, M.D., FACEP
This is not directly related to medical informatics, but it is a user-interaction topic, and has some lessons for the usability of medical software.
First: Unlike many nerds, I like Microsoft Word. It’s a mature product and works well. It has many complications into which one may delve, and for those who want to delve, there is a wealth of online information resources. Yes, I have UltraEdit and I know that some writers prefer a simple editor like UltraEdit for creating books and articles. But I still like Word best for this.
I also use Microsoft Outlook. Not for email – it’s so insecure unless you’re behind a solid corporate firewall. I use Pegasus Mail instead. It’s one of the hacker’s email programs.
I use Outlook as a personal information manager. Not because it’s the best PIM – it’s not. But if you want compatibility, Outlook has it. I can use gSyncit to sync my contacts between Outlook and Google Contacts, which is what my Android phone uses. I can sync my notes and tasks and calendar with my Android phone using CompanionLink and the Android app, DejaOffice.
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