EHR Design Matters

Technology progresses in pursuit of making things simpler. Electronic Health Records are a perfect example in this regard. They are designed in pursuit of saving a doctor’s time, and to offer a seamless flow of patient information, but do they actually?

EHR Interface

The application may offer sheer utility. However, it does not assist very well when it comes to understanding the UI. The information is scattered all around. You specifically have to look for a certain piece of information. It takes time for a doctor to get a complete picture of a patient.

Another issue with EHR was that it is not as user-friendly as it potentially can be. Doctors have to dig into the information to find something that may be relevant to the treatment.

The Ideal Route

Recently, there have been many propositions about the infamous social media application, Facebook, being handed over the EHR design.

Why Facebook?

The digital media gem Mark Zuckerberg has created a design that we call the pinnacle of what a UI could be. When you visit a profile, it gives you a detailed snapshot of all the necessary information that you are likely to be interested in. In addition, the timeline format that Facebook has adopted can fit aptly into an EHR software.

In the ‘about’ section, the patient could include details like his height, weight, gender, address, and the recent medical activity etc. He or she would have the authority to choose whom to share the personal information with. You can allow a certain doctor to access your information, and prescribe medicine on your timeline.

Same goes for the pictures which will be accessible by doctors (if you grant them). These pictures could be your MRI scans, X-Rays etc. Similarly, the posts, tagging, and pretty much every other feature the conventional Facebook offers, will be a part of EHR, provided it is designed by Facebook. This goes to show how much EHR design matters!