Engaging stakeholders in the design and usability evaluation of a decision aid to improve secondary stroke prevention.

Stroke survivors have a nearly 40% risk of recurrent stroke during the first 10 years. Effective secondary stroke prevention strategies are sub-optimally used, and hence, developing interventions to enable healthcare professionals and stroke survivors to manage risk factors more effectively are required. In this paper we describe the usability evaluation of a decision aid designed in collaboration with stakeholders to reduce the risk of a recurrent stroke. The decision aid was found usable and acceptable by both general practitioners and stroke survivors. Concerns and suggestions for improving the decision aid are discussed

Front-Line Physicians' Satisfaction with Information Systems in Hospitals

Day-to-day operations management in hospital units is difficult due to continuously varying situations, several actors involved and a vast number of information systems in use. The aim of this study was to describe front-line physicians' satisfaction with existing information systems needed to support the day-to-day operations management in hospitals. A cross-sectional survey was used and data chosen with stratified random sampling were collected in nine hospitals. Data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistical methods. The response rate was 65 % (n = 111). The physicians reported that information systems support their decision making to some extent, but they do not improve access to information nor are they tailored for physicians. The respondents also reported that they need to use several information systems to support decision making and that they would prefer one information system to access important information. Improved information access would better support physicians' decision making and has the potential to improve the quality of decisions and speed up the decision making process.Peer reviewe