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ABSTRACT: Information Communication Technology (ICT) has become an essential component in healthcare because it enhances interoperability amongst healthcare practitioners by facilitating the seamless and meaningful exchange of information within and across diverse healthcare institutions at the point of care. Consequently, healthcare providers have timely access to patients' information which enables them to manage patients' health in a timely manner. However, interoperability amongst electronic healthcare systems is still a challenge. One of the major obstacles to interoperability of electronic health systems is the problem of usability. Specifically, the ability of healthcare providers to accept and use electronic healthcare systems for information exchange successfully depends on how well the user interface of the electronic healthcare systems have been designed. Thus, a poorly designed user interface, missing critical functionalities in the electronic healthcare system or an inadequate match between the features of the user interface and the user tasks contributes to medical errors, decreased user performance and satisfaction as well as inefficient healthcare such as missing information important to diagnoses. Consequently, healthcare practitioners find it difficult to accept and use electronic healthcare system for patients' care and meaningful information exchange. Hence, this paper appraises the impacts of usability on the interoperability of electronic healthcare systems. The paper also examines the ways of ensuing usability amongst interoperating electronic healthcare systems.
KEYWORDS: electronic healthcare system, healthcare, interoperability, usability, user interface.
1 INTRODUCTION
The adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the healthcare domain has significant promise of enhancing interoperability amongst healthcare practitioners. One visible aspect of this is the possibility of facilitating the seamless and meaningful exchange of information within and across diverse healthcare institutions at the point of care. Nevertheless, the ability to ensure interoperability in the healthcare system is as complex as it is essential. Obviously, this requires creativity and innovation that can make the process and system usable at all times. As such, achieving interoperability should be a shared responsibility for all stakeholders. Furthermore, the emergence and widespread deployment of electronic healthcare systems to manage patients' care has become a significant trend in healthcare. Electronic healthcare systems such as Electronic Health Records (EHR), Electronic Patients Record (EPR), Electronic Medical Records (EMR), telemedicine services, web health portals, e-prescription services and Computer Based Patients Records (CPR) are...