A Staged Approach for Facilitating Joint End User, Vendor, and Multi-Disciplinary Subject Matter Expert Input to Health Information Technology Recommendations

Design of health information technology (HIT) that improves patient outcomes is an ongoing process. We propose a methodology that takes a human factors engineering approach to develop systems-engineering-style requirements and design recommendations for both HIT and aspects beyond the scope of the HIT itself (e.g., policies and procedures). Our approach includes: (1) data collection and analysis; (2) preliminary recommendations generation; (3) recommendation review by methodological and domain subject matter experts; (4) revised recommendation review by end users; (5) revised recommendation review by HIT vendors; and (6) final recommendation generation. We illustrate the methodology by presenting a case study focusing on home health care nurses using HIT during the home care admission process.