I want clinicians to buy more Apple products.  I want Macbooks to replace your PCs.  Other than promoting Apple and angering PC-lovers, why would I say this?

I say this because my mind was opened to a new world when I started using Apple products — usability. Usability means making tools easier-to-use so you can complete your job quicker or easier than you previously could.

Windows-based PCs are notorious for their usability problems.  Even Bill Gates was aware of these issues.  Since we have all used a Windows-based PC they are great at exemplifying usability problems. Identifying usability problems are difficult because you probably don’t even recognize them, you just learn to live with them.  Some examples from PC-land:

Most PC-based touchpads are impossible to use.  So you carry around an external mouse.

It takes 5-10 minutes for your PC to “wake up” from being “asleep”.  You don’t put your computer “to sleep,” causing the battery to drain quicker than it should.

Turns out all these problems can be fixed when a company cares about the usability of their products. Apple does usability better than anyone else.

So, why am I saying this on a healthcare-related blog?  It’s because healthcare has a major usability problem.  The usability problems in healthcare are everywhere — they are just commonly called medical errors.  For the most part, medical errors are not the result of improperly trained clinicians, but are caused by system failures.  These system failures can almost always be traced back towards some usability error.

What are some of the symptoms of these issues in the current clinical practice?  Well, I think the best example is the training required to use most EMR software packages.  No software should require 24 hours of training before your “certified” to use it. Training = poor usability.

I think its time that clinicians begin to understand the importance of usability.  Once you experience a highly usable product you won’t be able to go back. Therefore, give Apple a try and demand usability in all products you use — whether software or hardware.  Your patients will thank you later.

Jonathan Baran is co-founder of HealthFinch.

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