2005 Scientific Session Abstracts
A Comparative Usability Evaluation of Three Clinical Trial Management Systems
Daniel Clauw 2 MD, Byungsuk Choi 1, 2 MSI; Stan Drozdetski 1, 2 MSI; Linda Yu 1, 2 MSI; Dale Hunscher BA 1, 2. ( dalehuns@umich.edu); 1School of Information, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 2Center for the Advancement of Clinical Research, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI
Context : Clinical trial information systems collect information relevant to research, tracking enrollment and supporting electronic data capture. University of Michigan Medical School staff and graduate students from the School of Information examined the usability of three such systems as part of a system selection process.
Technology : We examined three clinical trial data management systems: the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute’s Clinical Trial Management Application; University of Michigan’s BioDBx; and Velos eResearch, a commercial system from Velos Inc., Fremont, CA, USA.
Design : We utilized the following methods to assess the usability of all three systems separately: action analysis, visual analysis, generalized transition networks, vocabulary analysis, heuristic evaluation, and direct observation of users. A parallel investigation by other staff evaluated program functionality.
Results : We found that all three systems had usability issues in common: program workflow incompatible with that of end users; nonstandard organization; inconsistent terminology for navigational controls and domain concepts; obscure program navigation; and missing or inadequate search functions. The commercial system led the group in usability but still had much room for improvement, whereas the two systems developed in-house had somewhat richer feature sets.
Conclusions : Clinical trial management systems are feature-rich but fare less well with respect to overall usability. Workflow inflexibility, inconsistencies, and inadequate grasp of organizational culture are primary contributors to this gap. Spending more time working directly with users and designing software systems for flexibility will lead to more usable systems, lowering barriers to adoption and increasing user satisfaction. Software developers need to gain a better understanding of human cognition and organizational culture in order to achieve these goals.
