ArticleJournal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA2014
Applying human factors principles to alert design increases efficiency and reduces prescribing errors in a scenario-based simulation.
Article in Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
52 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 140 citations in OpenAlex.
- Clinical Decision Support Systems for Drug Allergy Checking: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2018Pooled it
- A systematic review of the types and causes of prescribing errors generated from using computerized provider order entry systems in primary and secondary care.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2017Pooled it
- A systematic review of mixed methods research on human factors and ergonomics in health care.Applied ergonomics · 2015Pooled it
- Usability Flaws in Medication Alerting Systems: Impact on Usage and Work System.Yearbook of medical informatics · 2015Pooled it
- Examining Care Planning Efficiency and Clinical Decision Support Adoption in a System Tailoring to Nurses' Graph Literacy: National, Web-Based Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Trial
- Usability of a perioperative medication-related clinical decision support software application: a randomized controlled trial.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2022Trial
- Conducting a representative national randomized control trial of tailored clinical decision support for nurses remotely: Methods and implications.Contemporary clinical trials · 2022Trial
- How the presentation of patient information and decision-support advisories influences opioid prescribing behavior: A simulation study.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2020Trial
- Can physics review catch prescription and PTV margin errors in fully automated radiotherapy plans? A hazard study.Journal of applied clinical medical physics · 2026Article
- Factors contributing to electronic prescribing errors in healthcare settings: a qualitative study.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2026Article
- The value of simulation testing for the evaluation of ambient digital scribes: a case report.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2025Article
- Digital Decision Support for Perioperative Care of Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: A Call to Action.JMIR diabetes · 2025Article
- Editorial: Overcoming challenges in health technology implementation to maximize patient safety.Frontiers in health services · 2025Article
- Digital silence: the psychological impact of being shadow banned on mental health and self-perception.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Usability of a Human Factors-based Clinical Decision Support in the Emergency Department: Lessons Learned for Design and Implementation.Human factors · 2024Article
- Cognitive task analysis of clinicians' drug-drug interaction management during patient care and implications for alert design.BMJ open · 2023Article
- Retrospective analysis of the human-centered design process used to develop a clinical decision support in the emergency department: PE Dx Study Part 2.Human factors in healthcare · 2023Article
- Post-implementation usability evaluation of a human factors-based clinical decision support for pulmonary embolism (PE) diagnosis (Dx): PE Dx Study Part 1.Human factors in healthcare · 2023Article
- The decision aid is the easy part: workflow challenges of shared decision making in cancer care.Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2023Article
- Usability Evaluation of a Community Pharmacy Health Information Exchange Interface Prototype.Applied clinical informatics · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 7 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo apply human factors engineering principles to improve alert interface design. We hypothesized that incorporating human factors principles into alerts would improve usability, reduce workload for prescribers, and reduce prescribing errors. MATERIALS AND
methodsWe performed a scenario-based simulation study using a counterbalanced, crossover design with 20 Veterans Affairs prescribers to compare original versus redesigned alerts. We redesigned drug-allergy, drug-drug interaction, and drug-disease alerts based upon human factors principles. We assessed usability (learnability of redesign, efficiency, satisfaction, and usability errors), perceived workload, and prescribing errors.
resultsAlthough prescribers received no training on the design changes, prescribers were able to resolve redesigned alerts more efficiently (median (IQR): 56 (47) s) compared to the original alerts (85 (71) s; p=0.015). In addition, prescribers rated redesigned alerts significantly higher than original alerts across several dimensions of satisfaction. Redesigned alerts led to a modest but significant reduction in workload (p=0.042) and significantly reduced the number of prescribing errors per prescriber (median (range): 2 (1-5) compared to original alerts: 4 (1-7); p=0.024). DISCUSSION: Aspects of the redesigned alerts that likely contributed to better prescribing include design modifications that reduced usability-related errors, providing clinical data closer to the point of decision, and displaying alert text in a tabular format. Displaying alert text in a tabular format may help prescribers extract information quickly and thereby increase responsiveness to alerts.
conclusionsThis simulation study provides evidence that applying human factors design principles to medication alerts can improve usability and prescribing outcomes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.