HIT can be incorporated into simulation scenarios and used for usability testing, training, and evaluation. A multidisciplinary team, dedicated simulation HIT environment, and iterative pilot testing may facilitate use of simulation centers for HIT testing. Using a Medical Simulation Center as a Usability Laboratory for Healthcare Information Technology Lisa Redden 1 ; Pamela M. Neri, MS 1 ; Stephen Poole 2 ; Eric Poon, MD, MPH 3 ; Ali S. Raja, MD, MBA, MPH 3 ; Charles N. Pozner, MD 2 ; Gordon Schiff, MD 3 ; Jan Horsky, PhD 1,3 ; Andrew Reisner, MD 4 ; and Adam Landman, MD, MS, MIS 3 1 Information Systems, Partners HealthCare System, Wellesley MA; 2 Neil and Elise Wallace STRATUS Center for Medical Simulation at Brigham and Women's Hospital; 3 Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston MA; 4 Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston MA Introduction Methods Setting Multidisciplinary medical simulation center Simulated ED exam room Electronic Health Record (EHR) Custom-developed, web-based ED information system (EDIS) Quality assurance (QA) environment Patient tracking and electronic documentation Participants Nine PGY1-4 Emergency Medicine residents Simulation Session Participant evaluated standardized ED patient Documented encounter using EDIS (Fig. 1) Data Collection Staff monitored via one-way glass (Fig. 2) Study staff observations, notes, and team debriefings One-on-one interviews with participants Morae Usability Testing Software recorded participants’ onscreen actions Data Analysis Qualitative analysis of participant interviews Lessons learned from study team debriefings Feasibility Incorporating HIT into simulation center is feasible and can generate high fidelity data about HIT system use Need interdisciplinary team Functionality Fragmented HIT systems limit features available for simulation Enterprise vendor systems may be better suited as fully functional environments for simulation center use Environment Establish dedicated version of the EHR in use at the health care facility for the simulation center Discussion Conclusions Results Figure 1. Participant documents during simulated patient encounter. Lessons Learned Using the Simulation Center to Study HIT 2. Interdisciplinary Team Expert collaborators in HIT, human factors, simulation technology, and clinical medicine 3. Iterative Pilot Testing Technical implementation challenges frequently arise during piloting, and can be resolved with pilot testing before enrolling participants 1. Dedicated Simulation Environment All features of EHR should be functional in dedicated environment (e.g., patient tracking, order entry, laboratory results, documentation) Figure 2. In adjacent viewing room, investigators observe clinical simulation and collect data with usability software Participants Reported High Fidelity Scenario and EDIS Environment “…this was actually pretty realistic for Fast Track…” “It went like pretty much any typical day at MGH for me.” Esther B. Kahn Fund, BWH Department of Emergency Medicine Camille Ducharme and the MGH EDIS Team Acknowledgements Simulation centers have potential use for health information technology (HIT) usability testing, training, and evaluation. We describe our approach and experiences integrating an emergency department (ED) information system into a simulation center and piloting an ED patient scenario with electronic documentation. Scan for More Info