Article: Long-term EHR acceptance

There's an interesting summary on CMIO, about an equally interesting article over at JAMIA regarding design and user acceptance of an EHR over one year.  We should applaud the authors for proving a long-held tenant of developing EHRs - that a well-designed EHR will be well-accepted (and increasingly so) over time.  Part of the explanation for an increased acceptance over time can be attributed to a learning effect, and the fact that the users are getting comfortable using the system.  This holds true especially for well-designed software.  I can only speculate that poorly designed software would also see better (relatively speaking) acceptance as users just get worn down on using poorly designed software.  Definitely another reason to design it right the first time.

The tangent from here that my mind takes is that when technology changes and new innovations are made, how do we get users to buy into changing what they've grown to like?  Assuming that the enhanced software/features are done right, there is still the aspect of forcing a change on a user.  One of the challenges I'm working on now is just that.  I've been starting by engaging users in the new design - conducting a study to see which ones they like the most.  As expected, people have different opinions about what they like best.  So what next?  How do we choose the one that will go over with no resistance, or do we complicate it by using a pure MVC design where it's customizable?

The answer... I don't have!  I'm mostly using this as a chance to muse on the situation, and to engage others who may have come across this same problem in the past.  I will also be conducting some more literature searches.  I'll plan to keep updates coming in the future based on what's found.

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