Usability perception of the health information systems in Brazil: the view of hospital health professionals on the electronic health record

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to validate and measure the overall evaluation of electronic health record (EHR) and identify the factors that influence the health information systems (HIS) assessment in Brazil. Design/methodology/approach From February to May 2020, this study surveyed 262 doctors and nurses who work in hospitals and use the EHR in their workplace. This study validated the National Usability-focused HIS Scale (NuHISS) to measure usability in the Brazilian context. Findings The results showed adequate validity and reliability, validating the NuHISS in the Brazilian context. The survey showed that 38.9% of users rated the system as high quality. Technical quality, ease of use and benefits explained 43.5% of the user’s overall system evaluation. Research limitations/implications This study validated the items that measure usability of health-care systems and identified that not all usability items impact the overall evaluation of the EHR. Practical implications NuHISS can be a valuable tool to measure HIS usability for doctors and nurses and monitor health systems’ long-term usability among health professionals. The results suggest dissatisfaction with the usability of HIS systems, specifically the EHR in hospital units. For this reason, those responsible for health systems must observe usability. This tool enables usability monitoring to highlight information system deficiencies for public managers. Furthermore, the government can create and develop actions to improve the existing tools to support health professionals. Social implications From the scale validation, public managers could monitor and develop actions to foster the system’s usability, especially the system’s technical qualities – the factor that impacted the overall system evaluation. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to validate the usability scale of EHR systems in Brazil. The results showed dissatisfaction with HIS and identified the factors that most influence the system evaluation

Exploring Cultural Differences in HCI Education

The discipline of human-computer interaction has become a subject taught across universities around the world, outside of the cultures where it originated. However, the intercultural implication of its assimilation into the\ud syllabus of courses offered by universities around the world remains underresearched. The purpose of this ongoing research project is to provide insights for these implications in terms of the student and teacher experience of HCI. How this subject is socially represented across the different universities studied is a key question. In order to develop intercultural awareness of these questions\ud universities from UK, Namibia, Mexico and China are collaborating in a multiple case study involving students and lecturers engaged in evaluation and design tasks. Findings will then be used to propose an international HCI curriculum more supportive of local perspectives. This paper describes the initial steps of this study and some preliminary findings from Namibia, India and Mexico about cognitive styles and cultural attitudes

E-voting in Brazil - the risks to democracy

Literature has shown that countries with strong democratic traditions, such as the United States and Canada, are not yet using electronic voting systems intensively, due to the concern for and emphasis on security. It has revealed that there is no such thing as an error-free computer system, let alone an electronic voting system, and that existing technology does not offer the conditions necessary for a reliable, accurate and secure electronic voting system. In this context, then, what are the risks of e-voting to democracy? In what ways, if at all, can more fragile, less mature democracies be buttressed with e-voting systems? As a key component of e-democracy, it seems that e-voting technologies are to become more secure and increasingly reliable in the near future and will indeed be adopted in many countries. In what ways, if at all, will the introduction of such systems increase voter confidence in the political system, promote citizen engagement in political life, and nurture the evolution of democracy? If both e-voting and edemocracy are emerging based on popular demand - that is, as a demand-driven alternative to current processes, then there is no doubt that they are likely to enhance and improve the efficiency of traditional democracy. However, if e-voting technology is being introduced based on a supply-driven fashion - the technology exists therefore it should and must be implemented - then the implications for democracy should be considered. Brazil's introduction of e-voting offers a cautionary tale of supply-driven technological implication. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the introduction of e-voting in Brazil is highly risky to democracy due to the lack of emphasis on security and the lack of a sociallyinformed and socially driven approach to technological innovation. The Brazilian example illustrates the democratic implications of a market-driven approach. The lack of a technology strategy designed to promote and extend democratic principles is not surprising given the closed door, market-based negotiations that led to the adoption of e-voting in Brazil. The promise, and indeed, the imperative of a democratic, voter-centered approach as an alternative for the development of an electronic voting system, is explored in the paper

User-created persona: Namibian rural Otjiherero speakers

Persona is a communicative artefact for usability that currently functions under the umbrella of User-Centred Design (UCD). Since we argue usability methods differ across cultures, this project presents a cross-cultural research probe on persona generated by indigenous Otjiherero speakers in Namibia. The objective is to find out how participants in this milieu take on, understand and portray persona artefacts, what goals of User Experience (UX) emerge from the inquiry, and whether the artefacts created simulate or differ from those in literature. Tentative methods scaffold from benefits attained by persona in the attempt to advance persona technical communication in cross-cultural design. This experience report presents initial findings on narrative content, rhetorical preferences, and the physical layout of persona artefacts as so-far constructed by Otjiherero speakers in rural Namibia. The report draws to a close reflecting on present challenges and advances, and indicating upcoming pathways

Human computer interaction for international development: past present and future

Recent years have seen a burgeoning interest in research into the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the context of developing regions, particularly into how such ICTs might be appropriately designed to meet the unique user and infrastructural requirements that we encounter in these cross-cultural environments. This emerging field, known to some as HCI4D, is the product of a diverse set of origins. As such, it can often be difficult to navigate prior work, and/or to piece together a broad picture of what the field looks like as a whole. In this paper, we aim to contextualize HCI4D—to give it some historical background, to review its existing literature spanning a number of research traditions, to discuss some of its key issues arising from the work done so far, and to suggest some major research objectives for the future