BC: Billy Augustine, Abdulai Abdul-Fatawu, Natalya Lebedeva, Hanieh Shakeri

Please describe your research project and how it contributes to improving primary care.

This project was undertaken by students from UBC’s Designing for People research cluster and was completed in May 2019. The objective was to design and evaluate a tool for family physicians and nurse practitioners that would make the EMR data retrieval process efficient and effective and allow users compare their practices with the wider network for quality improvement purposes. Using qualitative interviews, the team examined the ways in which the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network (CPCSSN) data presentation tool could meet the needs of primary care clinicians. The findings highlighted that quality improvement was a key interest of clinicians.

What are the key messages from this project to share with stakeholder groups (i.e. clinicians, policy makers, patients)?

The team designed a system and conducted usability tests with clinicians to evaluate the ease of use, transparency and customizability of the ‘audit and feedback’ system. The project provided numerous recommendations for future CPCSSN interfaces, including the ability to customize pages, editable reports to promote ownership and control, and visible signifiers for supported interaction. This project was presented at the 2019 Family Medicine Forum and suggestions for the improved user interface are being used to modify the CPCSSN data presentation tool.