What Learnability Issues Do Primary Care Physicians Experience When Using CPOE?

Abstract

Objective: To determine learnability gaps between expert and novice primary care physicians when using a computerized physician order entry (CPOE). Method: Two rounds of lab-based usability tests using video analyses with triangular method approach were conducted to analyze learnability gaps between ten novice and six expert physicians. Results: There was a 14 percent point increase in novice physicians’ task success rate (p = 0.29) and an 11 percent point increase in expert physicians’ task success rate between round one and round two (p = 0.64). There was an 8 % decrease in novice physicians’ time on task between round one and round two (p = 0.83) and a 12 % decrease in expert physicians’ time on task between round one and round two (p = 0.47). There was a 17 % decrease in novice physicians’ mouse clicks between round one and round two (p = 0.97) and a 20 % decrease in expert physicians’ mouse clicks between round one and round two (p = 0.80). There was a 5 % increase in novice physicians’ mouse movements between round one and round two (p = 0.67) and an 8 % decrease in expert physicians’ mouse movements between round one and round two (p = 0.99). Conclusion: Future directions include identifying usability issues faced by physicians when using the EHR through subtask analysis.