Contributions of activity ergonomics to the design of an electronic health record to support collaborative mental care of children and youth: Preliminary results.

BACKGROUND: The use of electronic health records (EHR) is related to the improvement of service quality and care coordination. The design of this platform generally focuses on the individual use of the system and does not integrate the specific needs of workers to provide support for collaborative activities. OBJECTIVE: The study investigated how activity ergonomics (AE) contributed to improve the design of an EHR that supports the collaborative mental health care of children and youth. METHODS: This qualitative study, based on the theoretical framework of AE, used individual and group interviews and document analysis as research procedures. The data collection occurred between March and September 2017 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. RESULTS: The study highlighted the following points: the characteristics that marked the different perceptions of workers regarding the use of a communication tool for collaborative care; the problems related to spreadsheet usability; and the desirable attributes that should be considered in the conception of a new EHR. CONCLUSIONS: The research indicated that AE favors improving the design of an EHR by incorporating the work dimension into the project.