Went to a very interesting talk on usability and hospital shift handover systems and technology tonight. I even came up with a product idea which I will of course not share, just in case it’s actually a good one:

“Any IT solution must be sensitive to the fact that handover serves purposes other than the direct passing of patient-related information.  What would be the consequences for the clinical setting if the other ‘work’ that we observed was no longer done in handover: would it be done elsewhere and would the system as a whole suffer if not?  Further, the paper-based handover artefacts that we observed are used in various unintended ways and therefore flexibility in information presentation and use will be key to the success of any system to support handover.”