User-Centered Design of a Pediatric Vaccination Module for Patients

Access to vaccination records through health information technology presents an opportunity to empower patients with their own health information. Personal health records (PHRs) are electronic applications that can enable patients and their families to interact with healthcare systems, becoming involved in the medical decision-making process and thus achieve empowerment. While electronic vaccines management represents a viable tool to monitor the quality and safety of patient care, there are complexities in the paediatric population due to the number of vaccines included in the official calendar, the responsibility centralised in the adult in charge, and the preventive relevance of immunisation in this particular population. This article describes the software development of an immunisation module using a user-centred design, starting from the analysis of potential users' needs.

The research setting was Argentina's Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires (HIBA), which has an integrated PHR called POPES. The first stage consisted of a qualitative analysis through individual interviews with adult patients with at least one child in charge, in order to explore the user needs. Stage 2, prototype development, started with the building of a new vaccine module for the PHR. This module was determined by a list of vaccines segmented by periods of vaccination (newborn, 2 months, 3 months, etc.) similar to the vaccination calendars on paper. The user possible actions were located in the top of the screen (registration, request, reminders settings, and download immunisation status). Next, researchers conducted a usability test. They showed the developed prototype to 5 users of the PHR in 5 iterative testing cycles. Each of the 5 iterations is described in order to explore how adjustments were made, validating real scenarios and taking into account user needs.

According to the researchers, the version of the PHR that was developed through this process "represents an efficient design with great value for the user, adjusted to their needs...[and with] the potential to improve communication between health professionals and patients." The ultimate goal is to create a simple, efficient, and safe platform for patient immunisation management.