Medical Information System (MIS) as a product
In one of the podcasts I recently heard about the Capterra feedback service, which contains verified user reviews of the software. Obeying a professional interest, I decided to carefully study the positive and negative reviews about the EHR (Electronic Health Record) systems in order to understand what is most important for users of medical systems by this feedback. In a few days, I was able to thoroughly familiarize myself with more than 600 product reviews from various developers, of which I identified key points, then I divided them all by topics and grouped similar ones. As a result, I will try, as I can briefly, to state all my observations on the main points that should be paid attention to the developers of medical information systems in order to get unlimited love of users.
The main complaints related to the financial side related to non-transparent pricing and the unpredictable cost of ownership of such systems during the maintenance period.
At the implementation stage, it is very difficult to draw up a detailed ToR and take into account all the points that will be necessary in the future, and some things that customers lose sight of. And when it turns out that there is no functionality in the system, the developers ask for extra money for it, although customers believe that this should have been taken into account in the basic delivery, so a conflict arises.
When the relationship goes to the stage of service support, there are also many complaints from the customer regarding the fact that the developer asks for money for any minor revision if it is not included in the service contract.
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Users who encounter such problems recommend a more careful approach to the preparation of the technical specifications and not take a word to the sellers who say that the system will have everything that is needed. Developers need to maximize the transparency of pricing policy and bring all its subtleties to the customer, so that future surprises do not lead to conflicts.
In order for any information system to work as intended by the initiator of its purchase, it is necessary to correctly build the implementation process.
To begin with, the customer must identify the employees within the medical institution who are most loyal to the introduction of the new product and are ready to work constructively with the development team at the implementation stage. These employees need to be trained in the first place and in the most in-depth, they should form the main core of the change leaders, who will help their colleagues when the developers finish their part of the work.
Basic training with employees must be carried out in full-time format, with a theory, practical exercises and verification of how information is acquired. It is better to leave distance learning for the future, when users are already familiar with the system and need to talk about some changes in the system or new functionality.
It will not be out of place to have a training portal on which you can post relevant role-based instructions and videos on working with various system functions, which will allow users to access this knowledge base at any time. Even better, if this portal will support the testing function and automatic knowledge testing in order to run through it all beginners and check their training.
Also take care of the availability of a test base on which users can test all the functionality before they start working in the main system.
The implementation of complex systems is never fast and smooth, so you need to tune in to a long and painful process in advance.
This section in the reviews turned out to be the largest for me, since a lot of negativity is connected precisely with after-sales support.
The customer, buying the system, expects to receive a partner in the person of the developing company for a productive and long-lasting relationship and is very happy when that is how it develops. But for the most part, he receives an impersonal technical support service, the employees of which are motivated only to fulfill their own KPIs to close applications within the deadlines established by internal regulations.
Basically, the reviews complain about a very slow reaction to applications, formal formal replies to applications, reluctance to understand user problems, inability to speak the same language, since there is no understanding of the specifics of the user's work, etc.
Positive reviews provide an answer to what an ideal technical support service should be. Each application of the user is his pain, and he wants to get an answer to it as soon as possible, so call back the client within an hour and find out all the details of his appeal, instead of returning it for revision with clarifying questions to get answers to which next questions will appear. Configure technical support staff to ensure that they are not a wall protecting the company from evil and annoying customers, but partners with a gentle embrace, whose whole purpose of existence is to help solve customer problems. Listen to your customers, talk to them, predict their desires and anticipate their expectations.
Here are collected those useful functions, the presence of which will precisely distinguish the product from the background of other competitors at the stage of system selection. The traditional minimum functionality that is required for the daily work of medical personnel is not described here; by default, it should be in a system that claims to be a medical information system.
So, on the implementation of what features is it worth considering the product manager in the MIS development company to make his software product the best in the window?
A lot of attention in the reviews is given to the presence of the patient portal, where you can conveniently see the history of visits to the doctor and the results of the tests, on which you can choose the right doctor and make an appointment with him. If the portal has an API that allows you to upload data in a form convenient for further processing, then this is another huge plus in the developer's karma, because such data may, with the permission of the patient, be used by third-party applications. Also, such a portal can support the functionality of a chat with a doctor if the patient has any questions after the appointment, and of course, various options for remote interaction (telemedicine, remote monitoring, etc.)
In addition to the patient portal, some developers also have an internal portal for doctors, which allows you to create a virtual community, exchange ideas and problems, give developers suggestions for the development and development of the system, and also vote for the implementation of new functionality in MIS, so that the functions most important for all doctors implemented in the first place.
What else can be up your sleeve? Notifications to patients via SMS or messages in the application (reminders about the appointment, the need for a routine vaccination, the readiness of the results of studies or analyzes, etc.), the version of the application for mobile devices, automatic word completion when entering data in the help fields, assigning shortcuts to frequently used phrases and voice filling of text fields.
Well, do not forget that MIS is primarily a large database, and people like to upload these data for further processing, add them to reports or visualize them in graphs. Therefore, a prerequisite for success is the ability to flexibly and quickly customize the reports required by users, do various uploads and display information in the form of charts on dashboards. And if these capabilities are realized in the form of simple tools that the doctors themselves can handle, then you simply come off the whole body from competitors.
Forget about the ugly interfaces of the 90s and 2000s, hire a normal UI / UX designer who will make a beautiful wrapper for your system, using the recommendations for graphic design and usability that are relevant for today.
What do users of various IIAs note as successful examples of design and usability? The interface is not overloaded with elements and the possibility of its configuration for the needs of a specific specialist, a customizable doctor’s desktop where he can take out the main tasks used, customizable menus, ease of navigation in the application, the ability to configure business processes within the system, customizable templates and print forms, and preferably so that all this can be done without the help of technical support from the development company.
So what should be avoided? Complex processes that are not intuitive and require many actions, screens that need to be dragged by the slider to see all their contents, unreadable fonts and a large number of submenus.
Here's a small overview of the results of reading user reviews on the Capterra website. Everything seems to be obvious, but still, many choose to go against the logic and do what later becomes the subject of long negative reviews from consumers. Love your customers and make them love you and your product!
More interesting about IT in medicine on my telegram channel t.me/it_medicine
Money
The main complaints related to the financial side related to non-transparent pricing and the unpredictable cost of ownership of such systems during the maintenance period.
At the implementation stage, it is very difficult to draw up a detailed ToR and take into account all the points that will be necessary in the future, and some things that customers lose sight of. And when it turns out that there is no functionality in the system, the developers ask for extra money for it, although customers believe that this should have been taken into account in the basic delivery, so a conflict arises.
When the relationship goes to the stage of service support, there are also many complaints from the customer regarding the fact that the developer asks for money for any minor revision if it is not included in the service contract.
')
Users who encounter such problems recommend a more careful approach to the preparation of the technical specifications and not take a word to the sellers who say that the system will have everything that is needed. Developers need to maximize the transparency of pricing policy and bring all its subtleties to the customer, so that future surprises do not lead to conflicts.
Implementation
In order for any information system to work as intended by the initiator of its purchase, it is necessary to correctly build the implementation process.
To begin with, the customer must identify the employees within the medical institution who are most loyal to the introduction of the new product and are ready to work constructively with the development team at the implementation stage. These employees need to be trained in the first place and in the most in-depth, they should form the main core of the change leaders, who will help their colleagues when the developers finish their part of the work.
Basic training with employees must be carried out in full-time format, with a theory, practical exercises and verification of how information is acquired. It is better to leave distance learning for the future, when users are already familiar with the system and need to talk about some changes in the system or new functionality.
It will not be out of place to have a training portal on which you can post relevant role-based instructions and videos on working with various system functions, which will allow users to access this knowledge base at any time. Even better, if this portal will support the testing function and automatic knowledge testing in order to run through it all beginners and check their training.
Also take care of the availability of a test base on which users can test all the functionality before they start working in the main system.
The implementation of complex systems is never fast and smooth, so you need to tune in to a long and painful process in advance.
Escort
This section in the reviews turned out to be the largest for me, since a lot of negativity is connected precisely with after-sales support.
The customer, buying the system, expects to receive a partner in the person of the developing company for a productive and long-lasting relationship and is very happy when that is how it develops. But for the most part, he receives an impersonal technical support service, the employees of which are motivated only to fulfill their own KPIs to close applications within the deadlines established by internal regulations.
Basically, the reviews complain about a very slow reaction to applications, formal formal replies to applications, reluctance to understand user problems, inability to speak the same language, since there is no understanding of the specifics of the user's work, etc.
Positive reviews provide an answer to what an ideal technical support service should be. Each application of the user is his pain, and he wants to get an answer to it as soon as possible, so call back the client within an hour and find out all the details of his appeal, instead of returning it for revision with clarifying questions to get answers to which next questions will appear. Configure technical support staff to ensure that they are not a wall protecting the company from evil and annoying customers, but partners with a gentle embrace, whose whole purpose of existence is to help solve customer problems. Listen to your customers, talk to them, predict their desires and anticipate their expectations.
Functional
Here are collected those useful functions, the presence of which will precisely distinguish the product from the background of other competitors at the stage of system selection. The traditional minimum functionality that is required for the daily work of medical personnel is not described here; by default, it should be in a system that claims to be a medical information system.
So, on the implementation of what features is it worth considering the product manager in the MIS development company to make his software product the best in the window?
A lot of attention in the reviews is given to the presence of the patient portal, where you can conveniently see the history of visits to the doctor and the results of the tests, on which you can choose the right doctor and make an appointment with him. If the portal has an API that allows you to upload data in a form convenient for further processing, then this is another huge plus in the developer's karma, because such data may, with the permission of the patient, be used by third-party applications. Also, such a portal can support the functionality of a chat with a doctor if the patient has any questions after the appointment, and of course, various options for remote interaction (telemedicine, remote monitoring, etc.)
In addition to the patient portal, some developers also have an internal portal for doctors, which allows you to create a virtual community, exchange ideas and problems, give developers suggestions for the development and development of the system, and also vote for the implementation of new functionality in MIS, so that the functions most important for all doctors implemented in the first place.
What else can be up your sleeve? Notifications to patients via SMS or messages in the application (reminders about the appointment, the need for a routine vaccination, the readiness of the results of studies or analyzes, etc.), the version of the application for mobile devices, automatic word completion when entering data in the help fields, assigning shortcuts to frequently used phrases and voice filling of text fields.
Well, do not forget that MIS is primarily a large database, and people like to upload these data for further processing, add them to reports or visualize them in graphs. Therefore, a prerequisite for success is the ability to flexibly and quickly customize the reports required by users, do various uploads and display information in the form of charts on dashboards. And if these capabilities are realized in the form of simple tools that the doctors themselves can handle, then you simply come off the whole body from competitors.
Convenience
Forget about the ugly interfaces of the 90s and 2000s, hire a normal UI / UX designer who will make a beautiful wrapper for your system, using the recommendations for graphic design and usability that are relevant for today.
What do users of various IIAs note as successful examples of design and usability? The interface is not overloaded with elements and the possibility of its configuration for the needs of a specific specialist, a customizable doctor’s desktop where he can take out the main tasks used, customizable menus, ease of navigation in the application, the ability to configure business processes within the system, customizable templates and print forms, and preferably so that all this can be done without the help of technical support from the development company.
So what should be avoided? Complex processes that are not intuitive and require many actions, screens that need to be dragged by the slider to see all their contents, unreadable fonts and a large number of submenus.
Here's a small overview of the results of reading user reviews on the Capterra website. Everything seems to be obvious, but still, many choose to go against the logic and do what later becomes the subject of long negative reviews from consumers. Love your customers and make them love you and your product!
More interesting about IT in medicine on my telegram channel t.me/it_medicine
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/461547/
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