Usability, Accessibility, Human Factors & Design

Submit content

Usability is the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which specific users can achieve a specific set of tasks in a particular environment [Schoeffel R. The concept of product usability. ISO Bulletin. 2003;34:6‐7]. Section 508 of Title V of the Rehabilitation Act seeks to ensure accessibility of electronic and information technology to people with disabilities. Traditionally, consumer mobile devices and solutions have strong usability, human factors, accessibility and design focus in order to differentiate themselves competitively in the market. As these devices are augmented and adopted for use in health care they provide great opportunities for improved workflow, communication, accessibility, end user efficiencies and effectiveness as well as user satisfaction.

  •  
  • News
  •  
  •  
  • Blogs
  •  
  •  
  • Videos
  •  
  •  
  • White Papers
  •  
  •  
  • Case Studies
  •  
  •  
  • Webinars
  •  
  •  
  • Presentations
  •  
  •  
  • Tools & Topics
  •  
Tenzing Group looks to help mHealth companies face the FDA gauntlet May 21, 2013 |
Eric Wicklund
 The California-based advisory firm advises developers of mobile medical apps and their investors on how they fit under the FDA's still-unclear regulatory umbrella.  More
Verizon, VMware launch 'dual persona' platform for Android devices May 21, 2013 |
Eric Wicklund
 VMware Horizon Mobile is designed to help healthcare providers who favor BYOD policies and want to separate and protect business data on those devices.  More
WLSA gears up for 8th Annual Convergence Summit May 20, 2013 |
Eric Wicklund
 The three-day conference, taking place May 28-30 in San Diego, aims to separate the old-style thinking of healthcare from the brash, new, disruptive world of connected health.  More
Ringadoc is ready for the spotlight May 16, 2013 |
Eric Wicklund
 The San Francisco-based developer of an after-hours answering service for physicians has closed its seed round of funding, and is looking to make its mark in the mHealth landscape.  More
Study gives YouTube the edge over other social media channels May 15, 2013 |
Diana Manos
 The new report, issued by Ideahaus, indicates healthcare communications professionals are shaping their communications policies despite a lack of guidance from the FDA on the use of social media.  More
Post-discharge plans get an mHealth boost May 15, 2013 |
Eric Wicklund
 Vree Health's TransitionAdvantage program is being launched in Montana and Connecticut, in an effort to show that the mHealth solution can work in both rural and urban settings.  More
Mobility: Key to overcoming barriers to clinical transformation and ACOs May 14, 2013 |
Matt Patterson
 Matt Patterson, AirStrip's senior vice president of business transformation, discusses the advantages that mobility offers in transitioning to an accountable care setting.  More
Status quo doesn't sit well with the innovation team at Boston Children's Hospital May 14, 2013 |
Erin McCann
 At a recent Institute for Health Technology Transformation event in Boston, the hospital's chief innovation officer, Naomi Fried, explained how four new mHealth tools are improving the inpatient experience for patients, families and clinicians.  More
DocbookMD, Medweb unveil secure messaging platform for physicians May 13, 2013 |
Eric Wicklund
 Unveiled at the ATA conference in Austin, Texas, Docbook Gateway offers clinicians a HIPAA-compliant platform to communicate and share images, x-rays and other reports.  More
Reducing risk: Why the lack of a wireless healthcare strategy is not an option May 13, 2013 |
Eric B. Abbott
 In this contributed commentary, Eric B. Abbott of ExteNet Systems lays out the four steps to establishing an effective wireless strategy in a healthcare setting.  More
Tuckson tells the ATA to keep being disruptive May 10, 2013 |
Eric Wicklund
 The former UnitedHealth executive helps close out the 18th Annual International Meeting & Exhibition with a call for meaningful innovation.  More
Tele-ICU comes of age May 10, 2013 |
Mike Miliard
 Herb Rogove, the CEO of California-based C3O Telemedicine, tells an ATA audience that telemedicine and intensive care are a perfect fit.  More
Is design important in healthcare? May 21, 2013 |
Joseph C. Kvedar, MD
 I've been in the healthcare delivery business now for 30 years and I can confidently say we've paid almost no attention to design. Systems are built around physicians' desires and workflows, and physicians tend to be quantitative, content-focused and able to handle multiple variables at once.  More
 
Advancements abound in mHealth, but what about the pace of policy? May 20, 2013 |
Lee Kim, Esq.
 Advancements in mHealth but what about the pace of policy?  More
 
Let’s play word association: I say 'mobile,' you say … May 20, 2013 |
David Collins
 I recently watched the latest 007 flic, "Sky Fall", in which Bond "comes back to life" after being killed by one of his fellow operatives. However, Bond stays out of pocket for quite some time "enjoying" his assumed death.  More
A diabetes prevention coalition meets in NYC - will mHealth be on the agenda? May 15, 2013 |
Eric Wicklund
 Like any chronic condition, diabetes is a disease that must be managed continuously - not just when you're visiting with your endocrinologist or doctor. A care management plan, therefore, must involve family members, other caregivers, schools and employers.  More
Getting at the heart of readmissions May 14, 2013 |
Alan Portela
 I will always stay true to my belief that health systems need to take an enterprise-wide approach to mobility. But at the same time, I'm often asked by hospital CEOs and CIOs how they should prioritize mobility when it comes to different care areas. My first answer is to look at your current challenges and strategic initiatives and then ask how mobility can help you to get there. While I always emphasize the benefit of mobility across all departments, cardiology is where I see the potential for mobility to make the most immediate impact - especially when it comes to improving outcomes and reducing readmissions.  More
Innovation in telemedicine: An entrepreneur's perspective May 7, 2013 |
Yulun Wang
 The need to provide high-quality healthcare to everyone while reducing costs has reached a crisis level, where it's a major focus of the highest government offices. More and more politicians and healthcare leaders are realizing that telemedicine is clearly a cornerstone of the solution. This is tangibly seen by the increasing number of healthcare systems that are adopting telemedicine, by the growth of ATA and by industry investments in telemedicine products and services.  More
The year ahead for the ATA and telemedicine May 7, 2013 |
Edward M. Brown
 Telemedicine as we know it has been around for almost 50 years. It has moved from humble beginnings as an experimental curiosity delivering rural healthcare to become something on track for mainstream acceptance across the healthcare system.  More
Discrimination May 7, 2013 |
Matthew Grob
 I've gone through life thinking, "It could never happen to me." But now it has. And it hurts. I've become the subject of discrimination. Mobile device operating system discrimination, that is.  More
mHealth: A perfect fit for PCORI's patient-powered research networks April 29, 2013 |
Thomas Martin, MBA
 On April 24, the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) announced new funding -- $68 million -- for the creation of patient-centered clinical research networks. One component of crafting the network is to build up patient-powered research networks (PPRNs). The goal of the initiative is to create "data rich" repositories for comparative effectiveness research (CER).  More
5 questions about mobile heath (mHealth) and defining what it is. April 26, 2013 |
Jonathan Levoy
 With the emergence of mHealth, telehealth has become a sub-category inside the definition of mHealth.  More
Remote patient monitoring will lead value-based healthcare April 25, 2013 |
David Lee Scher, MD
 Traditional health insurance reimbursement to providers (though "payment" is a more appropriate word) for healthcare services and products is at the root of our healthcare crisis.  More
Serendipity and personalization and connected health April 25, 2013 |
Joseph C. Kvedar, MD
 In a world where most folks change jobs every couple of years, people are often amazed to hear that I started work in connected health 19 years ago. Implicit in their amazement is a question: "Why did you stick with it so long?" The quickest response is that the work we started back then is not yet finished. A more accurate answer is a bit more complex.  More
Video: Leslie Saxon: Better tech for better health April 1, 2013 |
"What's Next" CNN blog
 What if tracking your heart rate and blood pressure was as simple as getting your e-mail?  More
Video: Eric Topol talks about his new book March 28, 2013 |
The Colbert Report
 Cardiologist Eric Topol talks about his book, "The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care."   More
mHealth Summit 2011 - Special Session // mHealth Alliance: Participatory Design for mHealth March 20, 2012 |
mHIMSS
 Join the mHealth Alliance’s Participatory Design for mHealth event to learn from a mixture of design firms and experts with field experience in the design of mobile applications aimed at addressing key health challenges. These panelists stand on the forefront of fostering local innovation, open source technologies, and working with diverse partnerships in emerging markets.  More
mHealth Summit 2011 - Special Session // Design Mobile Apps That Healthcare Consumers Will Love — Or At Least Use March 20, 2012 |
mHIMSS
 This video provides best practices for designing health apps through optimized user experience (UX) techniques to assist with increasing adoption and reducing abandonment. Topics covered include person and scenario development, formative evaluation, and competitive analysis.  More
Design for Emotion: Conquering Indifference with Enrique Allen // HISUM2012 March 13, 2012 |
Rock Health
 Enrique Allen, Designers Fund, 500 Startups Emotion is the tiebreaker, the multiplier, the thing that keeps people coming back. Enrique will map theory to current examples of products that elicit emotion at the visceral, behavioral, and reflective level.  More
Designing in Health: Making Technology Invisible with Arna Ionescu // HISUM2012 March 13, 2012 |
Rock Health
 Arna Ionescu, Proteus Technology is springing up everywhere in health care, but technology can't make make us better on its own. This talk will explore how design can make powerful new technologies even more powerful.  More
What is The Role of Design in Improving Health? // HISUM2012 March 13, 2012 |
Rock Health
 A video from Rock Health on the role of design in improving health.  More
Designing to Support Healthier Lifestyles // HISUM2012 March 13, 2012 |
Rock Health
 Rock Health discusses designing to dupport healthier lifestyles.  More
Form Reform: Health Data Entry for Humans with Jackson Wilkinson // HISUM2012 March 13, 2012 |
Rock Health
 Jackson Wilkinson, co-founder of WeSprout We all love the possibilities of data, but no one loves typing it in, especially your users. Learn fundamental interaction and product design techniques that can decrease the friction of the web form, resulting in increased engagement, decreased failure, and a successful product.  More
Unified Communications and Surveillance in the Clinical Setting October 1, 2012 |
mHIMSS
 For the modern healthcare delivery model to operate efficiently there is an undeniable mandate for seamless, comprehensive and real-time communications across the continuum of care. In this paper we will look at the link and need for collaboration and clinical information amongst various stakeholders from acute care hospitals, primary care physicians, long-term and sub-acute care providers, and to patient’s family care providers to ensure they receive the right care at the right time.  More
Coordinating Care Across The Healthcare Continuum: The Value and Importance of a Connected Healthcare Platform September 20, 2012 |
mHIMSS
 Healthcare delivery in the US is undergoing massive changes and while much of the discussion has centered around how best to reach National goals on quality, safety and clinical efficiency, one thing is clear. The vast amount of data elements from multiple and disparate clinical sources is compounded when patients receive care from multiple providers and the ability to provide comprehensive and real-time patient clinical information to every healthcare provider is an essential requirement to reduce costs and provide better care process.  More
The 5 Rights of Clinical Decision Support: Mobile Platforms Succeed Where EM/HRs Fail September 20, 2012 |
mHIMSS
 Since the first electronic medical record(EM/HR) was proposed nearly 5 decades ago, the importance of integrating pertinent clinical data focused upon relevant patient information has become increasingly important. Recognizing that when this first EM/HR was developed desktop PCs were not available, the internet was not even being considered and mobile real-time data access was science fiction, the advances we see being placed on data and the importance of structuring this into meaningful information are becoming the driving force behind healthcare informatics.  More
Cutting Through the Hype: Evaluating Tablet PCs for Point-of-Care Productivity November 29, 2011 |
Motion Computing
 Tablet PCs are more popular than ever. They're mobile, powerful and proven to help clinicians enhance productivity and efficiency. However, with more tablet PCs available than ever before, how do you choose the right tablet PC for your workflow?   More
Defining an EMR and HIE Strategy for Medical Imaging November 29, 2011 |
AGFA Healthcare
 Healthcare organizations are seeking to deliver a robust EMR that’s accessible from multiple points of care. It’s what your patient and medical communities are loudly demanding - with the goal of gaining increased access to patient medical records, and enhanced capabilities with the records themselves. One vital component of an EMR is often overlooked: feature-rich, easy access to integrated, patient-centric, archived medical imaging records.   More
Using tablet computers to improve clinical workflow and information security: A case study by the UAB Health System March 15, 2012 |
mHIMSS
 The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is home to a world-class medical center that has been serving the state for more than 50 years. UAB assessed the efficacy of mobile devices in the hospital environment. UAB assessed the feasibility of workflow and information security in this case study.  More
MidMichigan Health: Health System Improves Efficiency, Clinician Experience and Face Time with Patients January 4, 2012 |
mHIMSS
 Based in Midland, Michigan, MidMichigan Health is a nonprofit health system serving a 12-county region with 481 hospital beds at four medical centers and several outpatient facilities, urgent-care centers, nursing homes, medical offices and other locations. MidMichigan relies on instant access to allow clinicians to badge in and out of the EMR system on a network of thin-client devices placed at the points of care delivery. This solution reduces costs and makes it fast and easy for clinicians at MidMichigan to access medical records and healthcare applications so they can spend more time with patients.  More
Featured
Mobile Health Solutions In Support of ACO Initiatives
mHIMSS
 Health care providers today are under increasing financial and regulatory pressure to improve patient outcomes and continue to give quality care, while simultaneously reducing costs. ACOs in particular are focused on improving the quality of care and outcomes of health across their entire patient population, while at the same time lowering per capita costs. There is a significant opportunity for healthcare providers to leverage mHealth solutions to achieve these goals.  More
Design Tenet: Gorillas in the Mist
mHIMSS
 Observe users in their environment. This insight into the drivers and motivators of user behavior in healthcare setting gives us the ‘Aha’ moments for design, and clear direction of where to take the product.  More
June 4th @ 1PM ET -- Standalone Universal Viewing Platform: A practical and affordable approach to image enabling the EMR May 15, 2013 |
mHIMSS
 Accessing a patient’s complete longitudinal medical record is frequently a cumbersome process that frustrates physicians and diminishes quality of care. The inclusion of the patient’s medical images in that record is complicated by an absence of interfaces to the various data repositories and the lack of a single multi-modality viewing application. The recent explosion of Electronic Medical Record system deployments suggests that most healthcare organizations are preparing themselves to meet Meaningful Use mandates, but a sound strategy for image-enabling the EMR remains elusive. Join us to review the many issues associated with image-enabling the EMR and see how an advanced image viewing technology can meet the numerous technical challenges as well as satisfy the physician’s performance expectations.   More
How LifeBridge Health Embraces Mobility to Improve Patient Care March 20, 2013 |
mHIMSS
 Learn how Baltimore-based LifeBridge Health keeps up with increasingly mobile staff by notifying team members of time-critical situations on their preferred mobile devices. YoLanda Jones Spears, Telecommunications Systems Administrator, will share how the organization integrated a secure smartphone texting solution for encrypted, traceable messaging. You’ll hear how this large trauma center blended mobile devices into existing hospital systems and communication processes for improved patient care and satisfaction.   More
Design Tenet: Color Carefully May 30, 2012 |
mHIMSS
 One of the most important elements in using color effectively in the design process is knowing the user, the user's environment, and the task the user is performing. If you know these things, and you understand the impact that color has on an interface, you’ll be able to make informed design decisions to support the user’s tasks. Designing carefully allows users to be more efficient, more accurate, and more focused on their tasks, rather than on interpreting tools.  More
Video Presentations from The 2011 mHealth Summit, December 5 - 7 2011 January 18, 2012 |
mHIMSS
 This webpage hosts all of the video presentations from the The 2011 mHealth Summit, December 5 - 7 2011.  More
George Washington University Course: Innovations in Telemedicine and mHealth April 2, 2013 |
mHIMSS
 Advances in wireless broadband networks, almost ubiquitous mobile phone penetration, and data compression technologies are providing new avenues for radical change in the way doctors practice medicine and patients access care.  More
60 Minutes Features Autism Apps November 30, 2011 |
mHIMSS
 In its October 23 episode, the CBS News magazine "60 Minutes" reported on software for the Apple iPad and other tablet computers that allows people with autism and other communication disabilities to use the iPad as a communicator. Correspondent Lesley Stahl interviews people with autism as well as family members, doctors and therapists on the benefits these apps have had for many people.  More
Featured
Definitions of mHealth
mHIMSS
 A collection of mHealth definitions from key healthcare organizations.  More
Design Tenet: Type Less and Less Type July 30, 2012 |
mHIMSS
 Typography is the visual hierarchy for words. It’s the interface design for text, critical for readability and scanning.  More
Design Tenet: What Interface July 30, 2012 |
mHIMSS
 With limited real estate, every element must be necessary and efficient. This tenet provides design best practices for getting the interface out of the way so users accomplish their work.  More
Selecting a Mobile App: Evaluating the Usability of Medical Applications July 3, 2012 |
mHIMSS
 This document has been prepared as an aid to the healthcare provider or IT staff member who is engaged in the selection of mobile apps for a hospital organization or private practice. This guide outlines some basic steps to include in a mobile app selection process, to assist practices evaluate mobile app usability, based on current usability recommendations and best practices.  More
Glossary of Terms February 6, 2012 |
mHIMSS
   More
Design Tenet: Let Data Scream February 1, 2012 |
mHIMSS
 The data is THE story; it should be front and center to the end user. This tenet provides guidance on giving prominence to the most pertinent pieces of data with limited screen real estate on mobile devices.   More
Exploring Mobile Health Consumer Trends January 17, 2012 |
Rosemary Nelson, MSN, MA, RN-BC, CPHIMS
 Mobile technology is all around us, and is impacting all facets of one’s life in day-to-day living activities, business and healthcare. Mobile health (mHealth), a term used for the practice of medicine and public health, supported by mobile devices, has emerged in recent years primarily based on the rapid rise of mobile phone penetration.  More
User Interface Guidelines: Nokia December 7, 2011 |
Nokia
 This library includes basic information about usability and usability methods, as well as information about Nokia UI styles, and various design guidelines.  More
User Interface Guidelines: BlackBerry December 7, 2011 |
Research in Motion
 The Blackberry user interface guidelines can be found at this link.  More
User Interface Guidelines: Windows Phone December 7, 2011 |
Microsoft Corporation
 This guide helps you create a Windows® Phone application that follows best practices for user experience design. Advice presented was collected from the experts who created Windows Phone and from people who were the designers of many of its first applications.  More
User Interface Guidelines: Android December 7, 2011 |
Android
 The Android UI team has begun developing guidelines for the interaction and visual design of Android applications. Look here for articles that describe these guidelines as we release them.  More
User Interface Guidelines: Apple December 7, 2011 |
Apple, Inc.
 iOS Human Interface Guidelines describes the guidelines and principles that help you design a superlative user interface and user experience for your iOS app.  More