>From: JohnLeoZ
>Dr. Abbott's message about his work with AHLTA sent me off to Google
>with, I think, interesting results that may bear on our discussion of
>user interfaces. (AHLTA is to CHCS II, as VistA is to DHCP... a
>relabeling)
>The problems described sound more like issues of inadequate
>infrastructure rather than with interface design.
We are dealing (in AHLTA) with several problems. One of the biggest is in the reason it was created. AHLTA was designed to allow the tracking of symptoms related to "Gulf War Syndrome." It could only do this if all the data was in one pot. This 'one pot' design has caused delays, and the further you are from the pot, the slower the application is. Add to this the fact that the only way we can get down to the symptom level is to enter in the details at that level. Natural Language Processing will eventually be mature enough for this (hopefully within a year or so) but it isn't yet. We ask our providers to enter in lots of details (instead of a narrative format) into a pot that is far away. I complain about it daily too!
However, I complain louder when it isn't working than I did when I first started using it. It is an ambitious endeavor, and many of the current problems are technical ones that are being chipped away at. It will be faster (soon), and the interface will improve. Even if the application had no lag to it, providers would still complain that they are being forced to change. The more options we give to them in how to complete their work, the more they can find what works for them. An earlier post talked about letting users have the things they ask for, even if it wasn't the best way to do it. The more people use the system (and give us feedback), the more we can make the system (AHLTA in my
case, VISTA for most on this chain) work for providers instead of the other way around.
And on a completely unrelated note, do I have to do anything special to make my note types display in CPRS? I created a few personal note types in the roll&scroll area but I don't see them available in the CPRS. Is that list further restricted?
James Abbott
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