Investigating a Design Space for Developing Design Thinking in Electronic Healthcare Records

Abstract

In recent years, most hospitals have introduced an Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems to replace paper patient records. The satisfaction with these systems was lower than expected due to the poor organization of system data and the difficulty with obtaining actionable information. Data visualization and interface design are not as advanced in some parts of clinical medicine as it is in other scientific disciplines and commercial industries. In addition, the designers of electronic health record interfaces are confronted with a dizzying array of design choices. In this paper, we propose an 8-dimensional design space to provide a framework when designing interfaces for accessing a patient’s record. We present our methodology to define this design space: first we used the 5W1H method to set the dimensions, then we studied existing systems and interviewed doctors to define main values or categories of each dimension, we present many illustrative examples of these categories. Finally, we showcase the utility of our work for designers of EHR systems through a scenario. Overall, our design space can help building systems which will improve health data visualization and interface design.