Presentation Abstracts
Morning Sessions (Concurrent)
SESSION A
9:00 - 11:00 a.m. | (Room
Big Ten C)
Designing Usable Healthcare Web Applications
Jason Withrow
Healthcare applications face a variety of interesting usability challenges. Multiple
groups with diverse roles access the application; each has its own needs, goals,
and tasks. In fast-paced work environments, optimizing task efficiency is vital.
Likewise, there is a need to present a great deal of information in a way that is
readable, scannable, and scalable.
Best practices for addressing each of these challenges will be presented, as well
as strategies and recommendations for dealing with other usability concerns that
arise in healthcare.
SESSION B
9:00 - 11:00 a.m. | (Room
Big Ten B)
Winning with Usable Software in Life Science Research
Richard Sheridan and
Jennifer Baird
To succeed in helping advance cellular research, the team at Accuri Cytometers™ knew they needed software that
makes flow cytometry accessible to everyone. A three-year design and development
collaboration between Accuri and Menlo Innovations has
produced a unique capability in the world of cell analysis applications. Join Jen
Baird (CEO, Accuri Cytometers) and Rich Sheridan (President, Menlo Innovations)
to learn why usability was so critical to Accuri's commercial success, how Menlo's
High-Tech Anthropology® methods engaged the end-user community, and the five
key success factors that enabled this productive collaboration.
Afternoon Sessions
Lunch and Opening Remarks
12:00 - 12:45 p.m.
Sarah Swierenga, Director, Usability & Accessibility Center, MSU
Hiram Fitzgerald, Associate Provost, University Outreach and Engagement, MSU
Teri Takai, Director, Department of Information Technology, State of Michigan
Michael Beasley, President, Michigan Chapter of the Usability Professionals Association
All afternoon sessions will be in room Big Ten C
SESSION 1
12:45 - 1:15 p.m.
Healthcare Usability--Code Blue!
Shane Lovellette
Imagine that your doctor has prescribed the wrong medication for you. What if you
were allergic to this medicine? The results could be disastrous or even fatal. Seem
unlikely? Not according to a recent study that found that doctors had difficulty
specifying medications due to usability flaws with a user interface. In fact, 31%
of the respondents indicated these problems occurred a few times per week.
Usability in healthcare is extremely important, yet is not fully recognized. The
good news is that awareness is growing. This presentation explores specific case
studies that demonstrate how healthcare companies are improving usability. The case
studies show the methods, challenges, and results from organizations that are responding
to the code blue medical emergency call.
SESSION 2
1:15 - 1:45 p.m.
Patient Safety and Usability: Experiences in the Department of Veterans Affairs
(VA)
Janine A. Purcell
The 1999 Institute of Medicine report To Err is Human estimated that between
44,000 and 98,000 inpatient deaths occur annually in the U.S. due to patient safety
errors, with a related cost of $17 – 29 billion. In that same year, VA formed the
National Center for Patient Safety, an organization that continues
to promote a culture of safety throughout a healthcare system that served 5.5 million
patients in 2006.
VA's Veterans Health Administration has been a leader in the systems-based approach
to reducing patient harm. Patient safety efforts in VA aim to build fault tolerant
systems that reduce the likelihood of patient harm. This presentation introduces
the patient safety movement and three supporting initiatives within VA: The National
Center for Patient Safety (NCPS), the Office of Information Patient Safety Program,
and the Bar Code Resource Office. This presentation includes examples of the usability
and human factors-based tactics aimed at decreasing harm to patients in the VA healthcare
system.
SESSION 3
1:45 - 2:15 p.m.
Codeless QA Testing: A Revolution in the Automated Testing Tool Market
Sumanth Muthyala, Ergin Salih, and Jim Brennan
Compuware saw a market opportunity if they could somehow enable non-technical
business users to participate in the quality assurance (QA) testing part of software
development. The product at the time offered tremendous power and flexibility to
QA testing teams responsible for functional/regression testing of applications with
extensive knowledge in writing code, but dramatic changes would be needed to simplify
the user experience in order to attract this broader demographic and allow them
to achieve success as well. This presentation shows the original technical product
and tracks its evolution from initial concept through final design. Even if you
have never conducted QA testing, you will experience how a product can make a dramatic
improvement in a single release.
Break and Poster Session | 2:15 - 2:45 p.m.
SESSION 4
2:45 - 3:15 p.m.
Making Sense out of Health Insurance Benefits Selection: Case Study with a Web
Tool
Laurie Kantner
Company employees have traditionally struggled to understand the health insurance
benefits that are packaged and given to them by their employers and insurance carriers.
Recent trends have only added to this struggle by presenting employees with a number
of plans and options from which to choose. Recognizing this challenge, Tec-Ed collaborated with researchers
at the National Institutes of Health and the University of Michigan to evaluate
and improve the usability of a Web-based collaborative health insurance benefits
planning tool. This presentation showcases the challenges and improvements that
occurred with each iterative testing cycle, and how the final application achieved
a design that could be used successfully by a large number of employees.
SESSION 5
3:15 - 4:15 p.m.
Designing for Older Adult Users of Web, Mobile, and Handheld Technologies
S. Ann Becker
Technologies today provide an extraordinary opportunity to promote better living
for the rapidly expanding older adult population. The Web has become a popular resource
for older adults, 60 years and older, in supplementing traditional healthcare channels.
Mobile and handheld technologies, together with Web technology, are emerging as
important resources in the pursuit of both aging in place and quality of life initiatives.
Through these technologies, older adults can stay connected to family and friends,
take advantage of government services, access health information, and pursue lifelong
learning, among other benefits. Unfortunately, older adults may encounter usability
barriers which impede their everyday use of these technologies. Poorly designed
interfaces and complex reading content may prevent older adults from utilizing these
technologies. This talk addresses these issues. Older adults are profiled in terms
of aging factors to be considered in the design of usable interfaces. Past research
is discussed in relation to usability studies and design solutions. A novel interface
design for handheld and mobile devices is shown. The broader impact of usability
research is discussed from multiple perspectives, including government, student
researchers, aging caregivers, and remote populations.
Back to the main page