Improving Usability through Enhanced Visualization in Healthcare

Data visualization has gained significant importance since the demand for software applications providing abstract view and pattern identification has increased. To meet the demand, a number of data visualization techniques and best practices have been proposed in many disciplines. However, data visualization is not as advanced in healthcare software applications as compared to other scientific fields. The result is a limited support provided to the healthcare practitioners by software applications. Moreover, poor usability of healthcare applications is another major hurdle in adoption of electronic healthcare systems rather than traditional paper based methods. In this paper, we propose an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system for Obstetrics, integrating different data visualization techniques. The proposed system has been evaluated using standard usability evaluation methods. The results indicate that using appropriate data visualization techniques in healthcare systems results in enhanced usability. The results also prove that better data visualization helps in improved quality of care and achieves high assurance in healthcare information systems.