As digital health systems accelerate across the globe, one question continues to challenge hospitals:
How do we truly understand the user experience behind complex electronic health records (EHRs)? Despite major investments in platforms like Epic, few institutions possess a scientifically validated method to measure how clinicians interact with these systems day-to-day.
At the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC), this question became a catalyst for innovation.
Recognizing the gap, the Medical Center Information Technology (MCIT) Applications Department, in collaboration with the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at the Maroun Semaan Faculty of Engineering and Architecture (MSFEA), embarked on a one-and-a-half-year journey to design one of the region's most comprehensive and evidence-based health information system (HIS) evaluation tools.
The project began with an ambitious rapid review of 10,960 international studies, narrowing them to 98 high-quality publications. From this global knowledge base, the team developed a robust framework of ten key constructs that shape HIS performance: usability, operational impact, reliability, training, IT support, collaboration, patient care, interruptions, hardware, and security. This framework became the backbone of a new evidence-based HIS survey—carefully designed to capture the full clinical experience.
The results didn't just confirm the tool's strength—they expanded the understanding of user satisfaction. This work positions AUBMC at the forefront of digital health evaluation in the region. The tool is now set to guide future HIS optimization efforts across the medical center and may serve as a model for other hospitals seeking structured, evidence-based approaches to EHR improvement.
The American University of Beirut (AUB) is proud to recognize Ruba Hadla, from the MCIT Applications Team, who led this project and drove it from concept to publication, in collaboration with Dr. Karim Zahed from MSFEA. Their research is now published in the prestigious Q1-ranked journal
Telemedicine and e-Health.
This achievement reflects AUBMC's commitment to advancing digital health and empowering clinicians with systems designed to support excellent patient care—and highlights the growing regional leadership of AUBMC in the realm of HIS innovation.
Full Article:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40982360/