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.

Terminology & Abbreviations

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

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Combined overview: if a Vitalink medication scheme is available for the patient, the medication lines from Vitalink are shown together with the medication lines from the local EMR. It will be visually indicated where there are changes compared to the previous version. Certain medication lines are displayed in a clustered way to clearly show the changes. It is this combined overview that will be uploaded to Vitalink. There are no two medication schemes (local vs. Vitalink), but one combined overview is shown in one medication scheme.

Automatic questioning of Vitalink

Mandatory

When opening a patient's EMR, it must be checked automatically whether the EMR has the most recent version of the Vitalink medication scheme, if the registration of the informed consent & therapeutic relationship is fulfilled and if there is a Vitalink medication scheme for this patient.

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The pharmacist must be able to clearly see when the application has failed to import the Vitalink medication scheme.

Recommendations

• Display visually that the application is working on the Vitalink medication scheme.
  
  • This can be done, for example, by a progress indicator or an icon indicating that the Vitalink medication scheme is loading.
    
    
• Display visually that the Vitalink medication scheme has been collected.
  • This can be done, for example, by an icon indicating that all data from Vitalink has been retrieved (+ mandatory information: date & time of last download).
    
    
• If it is not possible to obtain data from the Vitalink medication scheme, also visualize it and indicate why there is a problem / what the problem is (in understandable language).

Delivery of medication

zie wireframe AP 3.0

Mandatory

When the pharmacist scans medication, it is shown in the delivery screen of the EMR. It is visually shown whether or not the scanned medication is included in the Vitalink medication scheme (if the patient has a Vitalink medication scheme and the registrations with regard to informed consent and therapeutic relationship are in order).

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In addition to quickly switching between the delivery screen and the Vitalink medication scheme, the pharmacist must also be able to deliver medication quickly. Double work such as entering the posology twice and other repetitive entry of data should be avoided. It is a mandatory guideline to comply with the one-time entry of data.

Recommendations

• Show by means of an icon or a label whether the medication has already been included in Vitalink or not.
  
  
• The pharmacist must be able to decide for himself whether he/she wants to see the delivery screen when scanning medication. the screen with the Vitalink medication scheme (combined with the active medication from the local EMR).
  
  
• In order to be able to deliver faster and more efficiently, the possibilities for input of posology and intake moments need to be improved (see Group 1, 2 & 3 below).
  
  • Provide structured entry fields.
  • Provide pre-filled information where possible. Therefore create, for example, groups of medication:
    
    • Group 1: Medication with always fixed posology & intake moment & shape.
      
      • When this medication is selected: give default value for posology, intake moment & form (but make sure that this can be easily adjusted).
    • Group 2: Medication with fixed intake moment & shape.
      
      • When this medication is selected: give default value for intake moment & shape (but make sure that this can be easily adjusted).
      • Also make sure that the most used posologies are easy to select (eg show 1x / day, 2x / day, 3x / day as radio buttons (selectable via one click), and display the other options via a drop down menu).
    • Group 3: Medication that is always variable.
      
      • As described above, give the most used posologies, intake moments and shapes in a way that they can be selected with one click (buttons, radio buttons, ...).
      • Provide a 'more' button in which multiple selection options of posology, intake moment, ... are displayed.
    • This remark also applies to indication / pathology.

• Focus on simple input. If a complex entry is necessary, it is no problem that the pharmacist has to carry out a extra click for this.
  
  
• Simplify working with templates to save frequently used intake moments, ... (for example, provide 2 action buttons: 'Add' vs. 'Add and save as template').
  
  
• Integrate input for delivery, medication scheme and creating labels for the medication. It is not desirable that the pharmacist should enter this 2x or 3x. These may not be separate modules. It must always start from a structured data input.
  
  
• Analyze the information on the delivery screen. Which information is primary? Which information is secondary (and therefore not a problem if the pharmacist has to click to retrieve this information)?
  
  • By reducing the number of columns in the delivery screen, the Vitalink medication scheme could possibly be integrated in the delivery screen.
    
    • If this is not possible, a switch by means of a single click between the delivery screen and the Vitalink medication scheme remains a requirement.
    • If this is possible, calling up the Vitalink medication scheme remains a prerequisite (without additional information from the delivery screen).

One combined overview of all active medication

wireframes AP 3.1-3.4

Mandatory

It is important that the pharmacist has one overview of the active medication of the patient. Since both information about the active medication can be found in the local EMR and on Vitalink, the pharmacist wishes to see one combined overview. This overview must be shown on the first working screen of the application.

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• The necessary changes (make the deleted medication line active again, change the modified posology to previous posology, etc) can be done by right-clicking on the relevant medication line or by clicking on an action button.
  
  • When the pharmacist does nothing, he/she agrees with the overview of the active medication that he/she sees (deleted medication will disappear, adapted posology will be retained and the previous posology will disappear, etc) and at a next opening of the EMR it is shown as a local scheme.
    
    
• Provide the opportunity to display an alert:
  
  • With, for example, 2x same type of medication but with a different product name. These will also be displayed under each other for clustering.
  • For example, an incomplete medication line.
  • Give, for example, a tooltip after a 'mouse-over' action for the relevant medication line, more information about why there is an alert (eg incomplete medication line).

Recommendations

• Show interactions between medication lines through an alert.

Start Vitalink with one click

zie wireframes AP 2.1

Mandatory

If there is no Vitalink medication scheme present or not yet used, it must be possible to start the creation / use it with one click.

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When in the settings of the application it is stated overarching to work with Vitalink, the data of the Vitalink medication scheme is automatically retrieved and thus shown in the combined overview.

Recommendations

• If starting with the creation of a Vitalink medication scheme, it is important that all active medication is automatically uploaded from the local EMR to Vitalink.
  • It is not the intention that the pharmacist will transfer all medication lines manually, line by line. All products in the recent delivery history must be able to be transferred to the medication scheme in one go, whereby as much information as possible is filled in automatically and the pharmacist only has to add the 'missing' or 'to be validated' information.
  • Afterwards, details of intake, comments, ... can be entered on the medication scheme itself.
    • The transfer of the products from the recent delivery history in one go assumes that after the transport in the interface it is indicated on which medication lines there is still missing information that the pharmacist must complete.
    • All medication lines remain customizable.

Interactive/Dynamic medication scheme

Mandatory

From the combined overview of all active medication it should be possible to open the complete medication scheme with the combined overview via one click.

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If the local medication scheme is made interactive, this should work bi-directionally (an adjustment of an intake moment on the medication scheme should lead to an adjustment in the list of active medication).

Recommendations

• The pharmacist wants to see the following extra information per medication line:
  • Name of the health care provider who prescribed / adjusted the medication. This information is sent with the medication scheme to Vitalink. This gives added value to the interpretation of the scheme and in this way it is clear to other care providers which medication is prescribed by who.
  • For which pathology is the medication prescribed? (not compulsory to enter during prescribing, but desirable. This will usually be entered by the general practitioner).

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• In addition to the name of the health care provider, show the specialty of the health care provider who has added or adjusted a medication line if this is given via Vitalink.
  
  
• Make it possible to drag medication from the 'chronic' to 'temporary' or 'if necessary' category, taking into account the corresponding specifications for each of these categories (eg with regard to the end date).
  
  
• Visualize medication that was delivered during the current delivery in a different way (icon and / or color).
  
  
• Showing the version number is less important for the pharmacist, but can be interesting for a print version of the medication scheme or for other reasons.
  
  
• The pharmacist wants to know possible interactions between medication lines, but not all possible interactions.
  
  
• In some cases, the pharmacist may want to adjust the order of the medication lines in the Vitalink medication scheme.
  
  • Make sorting possible on the columns of the medication scheme that is shown locally (eg alphabetically, per pathology (if indication is entered), per intake moment, most recently added medication on top (so also the last changes are at the top), chronic / temporary /If necessary.
  • Visually indicate which column has been sorted.
  • Ensure that this representation is remembered when opening the Vitalink medication scheme for other patients.

Validate the Vitalink medication scheme

Mandatory

Pharmacists state that if they have final responsibility for the uploaded of the Vitalink medication scheme, they want to see the full Vitalink medication scheme (combined overview) before uploading the scheme.

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A medication scheme can not 'to be validated' for more than x number of days. This number of days must be parametrisable. Afterwards, the pharmacist is obliged by a notification to validate the medication scheme (and is uploaded to Vitalink) or take another action (not validate).

Recommendations

• It is important that the 'to do' list for later validation of medication schemes and uploading to Vitalink can be managed efficiently.

  • Provide the pharmacist with a reminder functionality in which he / she can set up to be reminded within x time to validate the medication scheme on the 'to do' list and send it to Vitalink.

Visualization of the print version of the Vitalink medication scheme

Mandatory

It should be taken into account that the print version of the medication scheme for the patient may evolve in the future.

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Click here for more in-depth information regarding the Vitalink medication scheme print.

Recommendations

• Ensure that the pharmacist can easily switch between the different display types.

• Keep the preference for a specific type of display for each patient, so that the pharmacist can know which type he / she should select during a subsequent consultation.

How to handle mistakes

Mandatory

If a medication scheme is removed from Vitalink and can not be fully visualized by the interpreting software package (eg if there is a problem with a medication line, posology or other), it is important to get as much information as possible on each medication line so that 'something' in the Vitalink medication scheme can be shown.

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• "The Vitalink medication scheme can not be uploaded. There is an error in the medication line medication x."

• "The Vitalink medication scheme can not be uploaded. There is currently no connection possible with Vitalink."

Recommendations

• Provide sufficient functional & technical tests to prevent bugs.
• Ensure that the pharmacist can complete the information in an easy way.

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