ed-informatics.org

Make things visible: bridge the gulfs of execution and evaluation. Use technology to make visible what would otherwise be invisible, thus improving feedback and the ability to keep control. –Donald A. Norman, The Design of Everyday Things Norman states: Mapping is a technical term meaning the relationship between two things, in this case between the […]

Most users (myself included) spend most of their time in front of a computer in a kind of fuzzy autopilot mode, and anything that creates ripples on that placid lake of unawareness is going to be noticed as a disproportionately significant problem. –David Harris, creator of Pegasus Mail In Icons, Pegagogic Vectors, Forms Design and […]

God is in the details –Mies van der Rohe The primary function of an ED tracking system – at least if you look at it from the right direction – is to display relevant, timely data to the user. A tracking system may do other things, but this function of data display is arguably its […]

Where is the Chart!?!? If you visit different EDs, one of the most common tracking-type refrains you hear is “Where is Room 5’s chart? I’ve been looking for it for fifteen minutes!” Such problems delay ED patient care, and are one of the great motivators for moving to an all-electronic chart, one that can be […]

In its most pedantic definition, an ED tracking system is a system for tracking things in the ED. Tracking things that, well, things that we need to keep track of. People. Orders. Labs. Consults. Messages from docs. Many different bits of information that are needed to keep the ED running smoothly. One of the reasons […]