Human Factors Guidance to Prevent Healthcare Disparities with the Adoption of EHRs

摘要

This report is derived from several widely recognized international standards and the current scientific literature. It is intended for EHR system designers, developers, system architects and system engineers. The advances in Information Technology (IT) that have been transforming our society have tremendous potential to improve healthcare in areas such as clinical care, administrative transactions, public health, professional education, biomedical research and consumer health. In fact, it has been suggested that information technology must play a central role in the redesign of the health care system, if substantial improvement in healthcare quality is to be achieved. There is also a growing interest in understanding the potential role of health IT in addressing healthcare disparities. In order to adequately and appropriately evaluate the potential of health IT to address healthcare disparities, health IT adoption and utilization barriers must be evaluated and understood. In addition, barriers must be considered from the perspective of all potential EHR users. These include the medical provider, support staff, patients, family members and caregivers. Finally, the impact of the environment in which the technology is used must be understood (e.g. hospital/clinic and home/community). Barriers, issues or problems in any one of these areas could impact health IT adoption, utilization and ultimately outcomes.