A review of human factors principles for the design and implementation of medication safety alerts in clinical information systems.

Shobha Phansalkar*, Judy Edworthy, Elizabeth Hellier, Diane L. Seger, Angela Schedlbauer, Anthony J. Avery, David W. Bates

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

The objective of this review is to describe the implementation of human factors principles for the design of alerts in clinical information systems. First, we conduct a review of alarm systems to identify human factors principles that are employed in the design and implementation of alerts. Second, we review the medical informatics literature to provide examples of the implementation of human factors principles in current clinical information systems using alerts to provide medication decision support. Last, we suggest actionable recommendations for delivering effective clinical decision support using alerts. A review of studies from the medical informatics literature suggests that many basic human factors principles are not followed, possibly contributing to the lack of acceptance of alerts in clinical information systems. We evaluate the limitations of current alerting philosophies and provide recommendations for improving acceptance of alerts by incorporating human factors principles in their design.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)493-501
Number of pages0
JournalJ Am Med Inform Assoc
Volume17
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2010

Keywords

  • Ergonomics
  • Hospital Information Systems
  • Humans
  • Medical Order Entry Systems

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