Analysis of Metrics for the Usability Evaluation of Electronic Health Record Systems Georgy KOPANITSA a,b,1 , Zhanna TSVETKOVA b , Hasan VESELI a a Institute for Biological and Medical Imaging, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany b Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk, Russia Abstract. Electronic health records are gradually replacing conventional paper- based health records. For a doctor, it is a working instrument, which can significantly reduce the time spent on paper work. At the same time, patients can benefit from accessing the electronic health records even though they usually do not have a medical background. Therefore, when specifying a graphical user interface (GUI) it is necessary to take into account the requirements of the different users: e.g. the functionality for the doctors and the presentation of data in an understandable manner for the patients. The study aims to review and analyze metrics used to evaluate the usability of user interfaces in health information systems. A literature review was performed to identify existing metrics. The scope of the search included the analysis of existing usability evaluation metrics that are applied both in healthcare and other domains, where standards for storage and presentation of information are applied. The analysis focused on metrics that are applicable for evaluating GUIs of health information systems. Several approaches and standards have been studied. Finally, a set of metrics and evaluation methods that provide holistic evaluation facilities for graphical user interfaces has been identified. Keywords. Visualization, metrics, evaluation, EHR Introduction Nowadays, conventional paper documents, relegated to the background, yield to more useful and convenient electronic documents. In healthcare domain, the prevalence of electronic health records (EHR) is growing rapidly and leads to the necessity of designing effective and friendly user interfaces [1-3]. Currently, healthcare professionals are the main users of EHRs [4]. However, there are strong indications that the involvement of patients will improve healthcare, and that a personalized access to the patient’s electronic health record will support patient empowerment [5, 6]. Therefore, when specifying a graphical user interface (GUI) it is necessary to take into account the requirements of the different user groups: e.g. the functionality for the doctors and the presentation of data in a simple and understandable 1 Corresponding Author. Georgy Kopanitsa; Institute for Biological and Medical Imaging, Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Environmental Health, Ingolstaedter Landstrasse 1, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany; E-mail: georgy.kopanitsa@helmholtz-muenchen.de; Phone: +49-89-31874181 Large Scale Projects in eHealth B. Blobel et al. (Eds.) IOS Press, 2012 © 2012 European Federation for Medical Informatics. All rights reserved. doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-052-9-129 129