When a physician has only a moment to make an important treatment decision, every detail matters. Developed for the European market, Medbase CDS is a CE-certified medical device that provides patient-specific clinical decision support for medication-related decisions directly within clinical workflows.
Medbase CDS is designed to integrate seamlessly into clinical workflows. The information it generates can be presented to users as part of healthcare IT systems, in accordance with Medbase’s user interface specification. Eficode experts have helped ensure that the usability of the solution supports smooth, intuitive and safe use across different healthcare environments.
In a nutshell
Company
Medbase provides evidence-based, clinically relevant drug information and clinical decision support to help healthcare professionals make informed decisions for safer drug therapy and improved patient outcomes. Founded in 2007, Medbase combines clinical expertise, scientific validation and technology to deliver trusted drug safety solutions to healthcare professionals internationally.
Challenge
Physicians have only moments to make important decisions based on patient-specific information.
Complex medication data and patient information need to be combined quickly.
Misinterpretation of information can put patient safety at risk.
Medication-related information needs to be presented in a clear and immediately understandable format.
Solution
Eficode designed how medication-related information should be presented to the user to support fast and safe clinical decision-making.
Data and functionality were visualised and tested in collaboration with Medbase.
Risk management was integrated into the design process to minimise potential hazardous situations.
The usability was comprehensively evaluated through summative evaluation and usability testing with representative users and refined based on the findings.
Results
Healthcare professionals can make medication-related decisions faster, more clearly and more safely.
The solution supports patient safety by helping healthcare professionals identify medication-related risks at an early stage.
The solution supports the usability engineering requirements associated with CE marking.
The collaboration with Medbase resulted in a comprehensive, practical solution for the European market.
Medbase CDS (Clinical Decision Support) combines patient-specific data with clinically validated medication knowledge to deliver clinically relevant alerts, reminders and recommendations to healthcare professionals at the point of care. It helps identify medication-related risks, highlights potentially hazardous situations and supports safer, more informed medication decisions without taking attention away from what matters most: the patient.
Turning complex data into decision support
Physicians regularly face situations where medication knowledge, patient history and dosing information need to be brought together quickly. In busy clinical environments, medication-related information needs to be readily available and easy to interpret.
Medbase’s comprehensive medication knowledge is combined with patient-specific information to provide a holistic view of the patient’s medication-related risks and treatment considerations. Based on this information, Medbase CDS can identify and flag risks both immediately and when changes in the patient’s clinical situation affect their medication.
The real challenge, however, is not simply the amount of information, but how it is presented. If information cannot be understood quickly and unambiguously, it does not provide sufficient support in a time-critical clinical situation.
In usability engineering, we had to consider all the possible use situations and exceptional circumstances that could arise in everyday use. At the same time, we had to ensure that users could interpret the information correctly.
Information that helps rather than slows users down
Eficode’s role was to design how the information generated by Medbase CDS should be presented to users in a way that supports physicians and other healthcare professionals involved in medication use without adding unnecessary cognitive load.
The work progressed step by step. Data and functionality were reviewed, visualised and tested together with Medbase.
This process also highlighted critical usability questions, which were addressed collaboratively.
Eficode was also strongly involved in risk management and assessed how different design solutions could reduce potential hazardous situations.
The result was a clear and implementable user interface specification that brings together demanding usability requirements, highly precise medication data and a tangible impact on patient safety.
The product has a significant impact on the safety of patients and healthcare professionals. Patient safety guided every design decision, and the usability had to enable faster, unambiguous decisions.
The right information at the point of care
One particular challenge was enabling presentation of information such as maximum dosage clearly and at the right point in the clinical workflow.
The data is complex, and showing it at exactly the right moment is both difficult and critical. Well-designed usability can prevent a hazardous situation from occurring.
Usability put to the real-world test
The usability of the medical device was thoroughly evaluated to ensure that it supports healthcare professionals in medication assessment and decision-making, and that the user interface implemented according to the specification is clear, unambiguous and safe to use. The goal was to ensure that information could be interpreted correctly in every relevant use situation.
The challenge is to provide physicians, nurses and pharmacists with extensive and diverse medication information in a format that can be understood quickly and easily. The user interface of a medical device plays a critical role in this: it must support efficient medication assessment and clinical decision-making while ensuring that information is presented clearly and can be used safely.
The safety and usability of the Medbase CDS was verified through summative evaluation and usability testing with representative users, which is a key part of the usability evaluation required for CE marking of a medical device. The testing demonstrated that the device reliably supports users in medication-related decision-making and helps guide them towards appropriate actions, including in urgent situations.
The evaluation included interviews, use-case development, moderation and recruitment of participants from different target markets. Based on the findings, the user interface specification were further refined to make the information as easy to understand and safely actionable as possible.
Eficode clarified and reorganised the information based on the test results to prevent misunderstandings.
In the final stages, further details were refined to make the information even faster and safer to interpret.
Each design solution was assessed to ensure it did not introduce a risk to patient safety.
Beyond technology: supporting safer medication use
Medbase CDS is a medical device designed to support safer medication use across different healthcare environments throughout Europe. By providing healthcare professionals with patient-specific medication information and decision support at the point of care, it helps identify medication-related risks and supports safer, more informed clinical decisions.
Eficode helped us understand the bigger picture, different scenarios and use situations. The collaboration was flexible and professional, and we gained valuable perspectives on how to ensure usability as well.
From Eficode’s perspective, the collaboration was equally smooth and goal-oriented.
Working on design, development and testing in parallel, based on clear shared objectives, was key to the project’s success. Everything was focused on creating a solution that improves patient safety.
- Design and UX
- product owner
- Software development
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