The National Institute of Standards and Technology is asking electronic health record vendors to send their products to the agency so it can research ways to evaluate EHR system usability, according to an announcement published on Tuesday in the Federal Register, Government Health IT reports.
Submitting EHR Systems
NIST said it would accept both inpatient and outpatient EHR systems for its research. However, the agency said it would not accept systems containing actual patient health data.
The agency also said that it would not alter any EHR products submitted.
Evaluating Usability
As part of its usability evaluation, the agency plans to assess the EHR systems':
- Instructions;
- Documentation; and
- Error messages.
NIST noted that it will report any findings about potential usability problems to the appropriate EHR vendor (Mosquera, Government Health IT, 2/15).
Goals of the Project
According to NIST, the project aims to "develop a framework for assessing the usability of health IT systems, EHRs in particular" (Pulley, NextGov, 2/15).
The agency also said it hopes to develop guidelines for performance-based EHR user interface design.
Timeline
Interested EHR vendors must submit their requests to participate in the NIST project by March 15.
NIST estimates that it will take about one year to conduct its research on EHR usability. The agency said it might later release a report detailing its findings (Government Health IT, 2/15).