Robert Schumacher Presents at HFES Annual Meeting

Managing Director Robert Schumacher spoke on two topics this year at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society's 53rd Annual Meeting in San Antonio.  In the presentation, Improving the User Interface and Adoption of Online Personal Health Records, Dr. Schumacher highlighed User Centric's research in the Electronic Health Records (EHR) field. User Centric consultants Tom Green and Kirsten Peters also contributed to the research which was widely read in the EHR community.  Dr. Schumacher also participated in a discussion panel, Toward a Stable Career in an Unstable Job Market, which covered career preparation for Human Factors/Ergonomics graduates in the current economy.

Abstracts:

Improving the User Interface and Adoption of Online Personal Health Records

In winter 2008/2009, User Centric conducted an independent comparative research study of two existing online Personal Health Record (PHR) applications: Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault. The goals of the study were to identify areas associated with the most errors or missteps and to determine which functions and features were most preferred by potential users. Thirty participants completed a set of tasks using each PHR application and provided qualitative feedback and preference data on five dimensions: usability, utility, security, privacy, and trust. Overall, participants navigated more efficiently and entered data more quickly using Google Health. Consequently, they indicated that they found Google Health more usable than Microsoft HealthVault. Participants also appreciated the fact that Google Health utilized more familiar medical terminology and provided a persistent health information profile summary. Although both PHR systems contain useful features, including the ability to share medical information with a physician, we found that Google Health had a slight edge in perceived overall utility because of important drug interaction information. Finally, in terms of security, privacy and trust, there was a slight preference for Microsoft HealthVault because of its strong brand presence, professional look-and-feel, and more friendly privacy and security language.

View complete whitepaper

Toward a Stable Career in an Unstable Job Market

While our typical career panel emphasizes what one should do to prepare for a career in a "typical" year, 2009 is anything but typical. The economy is changing every day and so too is the job market for Human Factors (HF)/Ergonomics (E) graduates. About the only certainty is that the economy and associated job market will likely change from month to month over the course of the year. Thus, our panelists have chosen the theme "Toward a Stable Career in an Unstable Job Market" for our 2009 panel. We solicited questions for this paper from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) student members. The California State University Northridge Student Chapter members then selected the best six questions for the panel to address in this paper. Many of the recommendations in this paper are tried and tested techniques, which should apply well even in this unstable environment. Some are new ideas, which the professionals on our panel deem especially appropriate today. At the annual meeting panel discussion, panelists will provide a brief introduction and then entertain questions from the audience regarding career preparation in today's environment. A subsequent paper will be published on the HFES website summarizing the panel discussion.