Redesigning digital dictation for physicians: a user-centred approach.

The user-centred approach has proven its success in software and product development. However, in the healthcare domain, user-centred research methodology has been applied less widely. This article reports a study that employs a contextual inquiry method to study the prevailing dictation procedures and solutions in a hospital from the physician's perspective. The goal was to empirically evaluate digital dictation and the other three currently used methods for making dictations, thereby eliciting information for supporting the hospital administration in their decisions concerning the further development of a dictation solution. The research indicated a number of user requirements for a dictation solution. The main conclusions were: (1) the currently used information systems need extensive improvements and redesign; (2) the observed process of digital dictation does not seem applicable for its intended context of use; (3) for future solutions, it is important to understand that the dictation user interface cannot be standardized.