In a previous post, Anthony made this basically off the cuff comment which hit me:
“many a time, the functional requirements take priority over UI”

We see this all over the software development world. In fact, it takes a really unique company to be willing to keep UI over functionality. Ask any salesperson and they’ll tell you that new functions are easier to sell than a great UI. So, it makes sense why this happens. Unfortunate, but makes some sense.

However, this comment also had me asking myself the question, “I wonder how many meaningful use and/or EHR certification requirements caused issues with an EMR UI?”

I’ve already had a few EMR demos where I said, what’s that button/function doing there. The response was, oh that was to meet meaningful use/EHR certification requirements. I’m sure many other doctors that use an EMR have seen the same thing. They wonder why an EMR has certain functions since they don’t provide better patient care. Certainly meaningful use and EHR certification is likely to blame for a lot of these possible UI issues. However, I’m sure that many more have to do with EMR software vendors that want to be all things to everyone. When you go down that path, it’s hard to maintain a great UI.

I’ve been starting to think more and more about various EMR UI. Especially with the recent launch of an EMR screenshots website. I’m grateful for the EMR vendors that have been great about sending over their screenshots. It provides an interesting view into the various EMR UI’s. I’m hoping to do some future posts where I take one or more of the screenshots and analyze some of the details. We’ll see how well that goes with an EMR screenshot.