Using Design Structure Matrix for improving Electronic Medical Record usability

Low adoption rate of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems is hindering achieving a national health care cost reduction estimated at $12 billion over the next 10 years. Physicians´ EMR adoption rates are as a low as 10% nation-wide, due in part to poor design of the system user interface. The poor design is impacting EMR usability where physicians are faced with information overload. This is causing physicians to accept and validate erroneous data that may inadvertently produce unintended clinical consequences. The subject research describes the shortcomings of the EMR system leading to low adoption, and then proposes a new approach of using the Design Structure Matrix (DSM) method for improving EMR system usability through the analysis of system functionality. DSM is a modeling tool for developing complex systems and enables users to analyze and model dependencies among system elements in order to improve system functionality. A clustering algorithm is used to evaluate the interactions between system elements, and results are analyzed to decide if further design improvements can be made. The preliminary research results suggest that the application of DSM may allow improvements to the EMR functional design and enable improved physician acceptance of such systems.