Document Detail


Heuristic evaluation of clinical functions in four practice management systems: a pilot study.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  17272376     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
BACKGROUND: Dentists report that the complexity and poor usability of practice management systems (PMSs) are factors in the slow adoption of computers at chairside. METHODS: Three dental informatics researchers performed heuristic evaluations of four PMSs to identify potential usability problems that may be encountered during the clinical care process. Each researcher performed three common clinical documentation tasks on each PMS and examined the clinical user interface of each system using a published list of 10 software heuristics. An observer recorded all findings, summarized the results and totaled the heuristic violations across all programs. RESULTS: The authors found 229 heuristic violations. Consistency and Standards, Match Between System and the Real World, and Error Prevention were the heuristics that were violated most commonly. The patterns of heuristic violations across software packages were relatively similar. CONCLUSIONS: The findings provide an initial assessment of potential usability problems in four PMSs. The identified violations highlight aspects of dental software that may present the most significant problems to users. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Heuristic violations in PMSs may result in usability problems for dentists and other office personnel, reducing efficiency and effectiveness of a software implementation. Vendors should consider applying user-centered design methodologies to reduce the number of potential usability problems.
Authors:
Thankam P Thyvalikakath; Titus K L Schleyer; Valerie Monaco
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Comparative Study; Evaluation Studies; Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Journal of the American Dental Association (1939)     Volume:  138     ISSN:  0002-8177     ISO Abbreviation:  J Am Dent Assoc     Publication Date:  2007 Feb 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2007-02-02     Completed Date:  2007-03-27     Revised Date:  2007-12-03    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  7503060     Medline TA:  J Am Dent Assoc     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  209-10, 212-8     Citation Subset:  D; IM    
Affiliation:
Center for Dental Informatics, School of Dental Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA. tpt1@dental.pitt.edu
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Computer Systems
Decision Support Systems, Management*
Dental Informatics*
Humans
Man-Machine Systems
Pilot Projects
Practice Management, Dental*
Software Validation*
User-Computer Interface*
Grant Support
ID/Acronym/Agency:
5 T15 LM07059-19/LM/NLM NIH HHS; K12 HD049109/HD/NICHD NIH HHS

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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