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Appl Clin Inform 2023; 14(02): 212-226
DOI: 10.1055/a-2006-4936
Research Article

Usability Testing of an Interoperable Computerized Clinical Decision Support Tool for Fall Risk Management in Primary Care

Kristen Shear
1   Department of Family, Community, and Health Systems Science, College of Nursing, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States
,
Hannah Rice
2   Department of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
,
Pamela M. Garabedian
3   Department of Information Systems, Mass General Brigham, Somerville, Massachusetts, United States
,
Ragnhildur Bjarnadottir
1   Department of Family, Community, and Health Systems Science, College of Nursing, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States
,
Nancy Lathum
2   Department of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
,
Ann L. Horgas
4   Department of Biobehavioral Nursing Science, College of Nursing, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States
,
Christopher A. Harle
5   Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States
,
Patricia C. Dykes
2   Department of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
,
Robert Lucero
6   UCLA School of Nursing, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States
› Author Affiliations Funding The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: this work was supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality [grant number: U18HS027557].
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Abstract

Background Falls are a widespread and persistent problem for community-dwelling older adults. Use of fall prevention guidelines in the primary care setting has been suboptimal. Interoperable computerized clinical decision support systems have the potential to increase engagement with fall risk management at scale. To support fall risk management across organizations, our team developed the ASPIRE tool for use in differing primary care clinics using interoperable standards.

Objectives Usability testing of ASPIRE was conducted to measure ease of access, overall usability, learnability, and acceptability prior to pilot .

Methods Participants were recruited using purposive sampling from two sites with different electronic health records and different clinical organizations. Formative testing rooted in user-centered design was followed by summative testing using a simulation approach. During summative testing participants used ASPIRE across two clinical scenarios and were randomized to determine which scenario they saw first. Single Ease Question and System Usability Scale were used in addition to analysis of recorded sessions in NVivo.

Results All 14 participants rated the usability of ASPIRE as above average based on usability benchmarks for the System Usability Scale metric. Time on task decreased significantly between the first and second scenarios indicating good learnability. However, acceptability data were more mixed with some recommendations being consistently accepted while others were adopted less frequently.

Conclusion This study described the usability testing of the ASPIRE system within two different organizations using different electronic health records. Overall, the system was rated well, and further pilot testing should be done to validate that these positive results translate into clinical practice. Due to its interoperable design, ASPIRE could be integrated into diverse organizations allowing a tailored implementation without the need to build a new system for each organization. This distinction makes ASPIRE well positioned to impact the challenge of falls at scale.

Keywords

usability testing - clinical decision support - falls - primary care

Protection of Human and Animal Subjects

IRB approval was received for protocol number: Site 1: 2020P002075; Site 2: CED000000426_.


Note

P.C.D. and R.L. contributed equally to the development of the manuscript as co–senior investigators.

The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the official policy or position of Brooke Army Medical Center, the Department of Defense, or any agencies under the U.S. Government.




Publication History

Received: 07 July 2022

Accepted: 02 January 2023

Accepted Manuscript online:
04 January 2023

Article published online:
15 March 2023

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