Introduction

This document contains UX guidelines that all medical software that use the Vitalink medication scheme should comply with.

All software packages should also comply with the UX guidelines for every software package in Vitalink found here.

A list of the terminology used in this document can be found here.

Abbreviations

Combined overview: if a new Vitalink medication scheme is available for the patient, the medication lines from Vitalink are shown together with the medication lines from the local EMR. The origin of each medication line will be visually indicated as well as changes, additions or stops. Certain medication lines are displayed in a clustered way to clearly show the changes. There are no two medication schemes (local vs. Vitalink), but one combined overview is shown in one medication scheme module of the EMR.

Import

The user must be able to see clearly whether or not a Vitalink medication scheme has been created for the patient. If not, the user must be able to indicate that he/she wants to make use of the Vitalink medication scheme for the patient in question.

• The user must be able to clearly see that the application is still working on obtaining the information from Vitalink.
• The user must be able to clearly see when the process of obtaining data from the Vitalink medication scheme has been completed.
• The user must be able to clearly see when the application has failed to obtain the data from the Vitalink medication scheme.

When opening a patient's record and the patient already has a Vitalink medication scheme:

• it must be checked automatically whether the EMR has the most recent version of that medication scheme.
• it's crucial that the Vitalink medication scheme is questioned automatically. The user does not need to take any action (eg no click to start a download or to go to the scheme).

The automatic collection and analysis of the information from the Vitalink medication scheme in a combined overview should take a minimum amount of time (preferably on average 4 to 6 second or less, with a maximum of 10 seconds). This happens in the background and starts immediately when the EMR is opened. In the meantime, the nurse can continue working in the record. When the scheme has been received, the user can easily switch between the work screen and the medication scheme. This may not take more than one action/click.

The work screen mentions the status of the medication scheme with a symbol:

• There is no Vitalink medication scheme for this patient.
• The Vitalink medication scheme is still downloading.
• The Vitalink medication scheme is downloaded + date and time of the download (an existing scheme can also be emptied and has a version number, which is not the same as no scheme -> status 1).

In summary:

• User can continue to work in the EMR (outside the scheme module) while the Vitalink medication scheme is being collected.
• Retrieving the Vitalink medication scheme takes a maximum of 10 seconds.
• The user can navigate to the medication scheme module with a single click from the patient overview page or dashboard.
• The user should be able to see the download status of the Vitalink medication scheme (downloading, downloaded or error).
  
• Patient overview page or dashboard should display the general status of the scheme (no Vitalink medication scheme, downloading, downloaded).

The import must also be able to be done in bulk. There are nurses who download all electronic records before their day starts, so they don't need to synchronise with Vitalink during the day. Sometimes there is no network or a very bad connection, so it won't be possible to have a continuous connection with Vitalink.

It's therefore important that a selection of medication schemes can be retrieved on request (eg overnight bulk collection of a specific amount of schemes for the next day). This means that these schemes will be stored locally.

Before downloading the schemes, the EMR should check the status of the informed consent of all patients. If the consent is given, the software package will then check if there is a therapeutic relationship.

• If there is an informed consent and a therapeutic relationship, the schemes will be imported.
• If there is an informed consent and no therapeutic relationship, the therapeutic relationship can be created automatically or by reading an e-ID card. Afterwards the Vitalink medication schemes can be imported.
• If there is no informed consent (therapeutic relation is irrelevant), the nurse should ask consent from the patient (eg when he/she visits the patient) and register.

When a nurse is part of the "circle of trust", he/she still needs IC from every patient but the TR is established through the "circle of trust".

Even after import in bulk, it will always be necessary to check automatically whether or not a more recent Vitalink medication scheme exists when opening a patient's electronic nursing record. This automated check will be done based on the version number of the Vitalink medication scheme.

If a more recent Vitalink medication scheme is available, the most recent medication scheme will automatically be retrieved. If this is not the case, the nurse can rely on the already downloaded local scheme for the administration of the medication.

If there is no network connection when the patient's electronic nursing record is opened, the nurse can rely on the local scheme that he/she downloaded at the start of her day. This implies that any changes made by the nurse will later be uploaded to Vitalink. If in the meantime a newer version of the Vitalink medication scheme is available, it must be reported to the nurse.

In summary:

• Software package offers the possibility to download the medication scheme for a list of patients in advance.

• Notification if IC is missing, TR is missing, there is no central scheme, etc.

Visualisation

When performing import, it is important that user sees the differences between his/her local scheme and the Vitalink medication scheme. For this we want a combined overview. The goal of this combined overview is that the user can see at a glance what has changed in relation to Vitalink or the local scheme.

The principle of a combined overview should be kept simple. Provide an indication which line belongs to  "Vitalink" or "Local scheme", which is a duplicate, which lines are missing, etc. Afterwards the user can take further actions.

It's important that this combined overview is automatically displayed when performing an import. It needs to clearly indicate what has changed compared to the local or Vitalink medication scheme, any alerts regarding lines where there might be a problem, duplicates or missing lines, etc. must be clearly visualised. 

The user can see, after retrieving a scheme from Vitalink, who made the latest changes to the scheme.

The combined overview should do the following:

General

• Show all the medication (both locally and Vitalink) automatically in one overview.
• Visualise the author which uploaded the last Vitalink medication scheme.
• State the patient's date of birth, name, and INSS.
• There is an author shown for each line.
• Visualise which line comes from where (local- or central scheme). The lines that are stored centrally have the Vitalink icon displayed next to them.
• Permanent medication and temporary medication are displayed separately with a clear indication of the start and stop date.
• Medication is arranged alphabetically in the scheme per component (temporary, permanent, etc).
• There is a separate section with "Indien nodig" medication.

Information per line

• Indication of the pathology (to be entered by the general practitioner):
  • For both the patient and the nurse, this provides added value to be able to consult the information in the scheme.
• Indication of a remark:
  
  • Always mention if medication can not be crushed, dissolved or removed from the capsule (entered by the pharmacist). This is important information to the nurse.
  • Both the product name and the substance name must be shown.

Changes

• Draw attention to changes, omissions and new additions in this combined overview in the following way:
  • Newly added medication with respect to the local scheme:
    • Emphasise this in any way you want so that the attention is drawn to it (note: If you chose for a different colour, users who are colourblind do see colour shades, so for them it is also visible that there is a difference of colour compared to other lines).
  • Change in posology, intake moment, etc:
    • Visualise in any way the line that has been replaced and what the line has become (in this way the user clearly sees what has changed).
    • Display the relevant line from the local scheme and the central scheme in a clustered way (in this way the two "associated" lines are placed underneath each other, which makes it easier for the user to make a comparison). By keeping track of the unique URI once the mapping has been made, the connection between two "associated" lines can be more efficiently verified next time.
  • Removal of a line/medication:
    • Visualise in any way the line that has been removed.
• When the user does nothing, he/she agrees with the overview of the active medication that he/she sees (deleted lines will disappear, adjusted posology will be retained and the previous posology will disappear, etc). The local scheme will be in sync with the Vitalink medication scheme.

Changes

It's important for a nurse that there is a clear overview in the medication scheme for modified lines (eg change in intake, posology, etc), discontinued lines and new lines. This means that an automatic comparison is always required between the local scheme and the Vitalink medication scheme.

Changes, additions and removals are shown individually. This means that when two nurses perform a home visit with the same patient, both nurses should see the changes, additions or removals at the next consultation of the patient's scheme. This keeps each nurse aware of the changes.

• Changes, additions and cancellations are individually shown to each nurse that works for an organisation or group practice. For example, every nurse can compare the local scheme with the central scheme in the combined overview. This way they are made aware of the changes.

Actions

Nurse

Changing lines

The nurse can change a line from another professional health care provider, subject to current standards of work (eg telephone contact with the doctor in advance). Afterwards, the nurse validates the scheme (combined overview). It is logged that the nurse performed this action.

Validation of the scheme

When opening a patient's electronic nursing record, the local version will be compared with the Vitalink version. If they're the same, nothing will happen. If they're different, both schemes will be shown in a combined overview. When the nurse made choices in the combined overview, the local scheme will be in sync with the Vitalink medication scheme.

How to handle mistakes?

If a scheme is downloaded and can not be fully visualised by the interpreting EMR (eg if there is a problem with a line, posology, etc), it is important to provide the user with as much information as possible on each line so that at least "something" in the scheme can be shown. The user who downloads this "incomplete" scheme also wants to see the incomplete/incorrect information. If necessary, he/she can supplement the incomplete/incorrect/missing information from his/her professional expertise.

As much information as possible is shown for each line. From the moment a line becomes "unreadable", the rest of the line should be downloaded as "free text" and shown in the comments field. In this way, the user can supplement the scheme with as much valid information as possible.

A line that lacks information must be displayed with some kind of an "alert" so that it clearly stands out in a combined overview. More information about the alert is given when hovering over it.

When at the end of a consultation the local scheme can not be uploaded to Vitalink (export), users often receive error messages that they do not understand. It is important that the user is well informed about why the local scheme can't be uploaded to Vitalink. The user should be informed in a targeted and concrete manner. Avoid technical error messages (you can show the technical error message after a error message that is translated and understandable for the user).

It's important that the software vendor can monitor the performance in an active way if the automatic collection and analysis of the information from the Vitalink medication scheme takes more than a pre-defined number of seconds (eg after more than 10 seconds). If after a long period of time (eg 60 seconds) a connection hasn't yet been established with Vitalink, the EMR should stop trying to make connection and inform the user about the problem in a user-friendly and concrete way. Afterwards, there should be a notification on the work screen that displays that no connection to Vitalink can be made.