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Appl Clin Inform 2024; 15(02): 199-203
DOI: 10.1055/a-2177-4420
Research Article

Vanderbilt Electronic Health Record Voice Assistant Supports Clinicians

Yaa A. Kumah-Crystal
1   Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
,
Christoph U. Lehmann
2   Clinical Informatics Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States
,
Dan Albert
1   Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
,
Tim Coffman
1   Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
,
Hala Alaw
1   Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
,
Sydney Roth
1   Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
,
Alexandra Manoni
1   Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
,
Peter Shave
1   Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
,
Kevin B. Johnson
3   Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Pennsylvania, Richards, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
› Author Affiliations Funding Research reported in this publication was supported by the Evelyn Selby Stead Fund for Innovation; The Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research; and The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health [award number: UL1 TR003163]. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
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Abstract

Background Electronic health records (EHRs) present navigation challenges due to time-consuming searches across segmented data. Voice assistants can improve clinical workflows by allowing natural language queries and contextually aware navigation of the EHR.

Objectives To develop a voice-mediated EHR assistant and interview providers to inform its future refinement.

Methods The Vanderbilt EHR Voice Assistant (VEVA) was developed as a responsive web application and designed to accept voice inputs and execute the appropriate EHR commands. Fourteen providers from Vanderbilt Medical Center were recruited to participate in interactions with VEVA and to share their experience with the technology. The purpose was to evaluate VEVA's overall usability, gather qualitative feedback, and detail suggestions for enhancing its performance.

Results VEVA's mean system usability scale score was 81 based on the 14 providers' evaluations, which was above the standard 50th percentile score of 68. For all five summaries evaluated (overview summary, A1C results, blood pressure, weight, and health maintenance), most providers offered a positive review of VEVA. Several providers suggested modifications to make the technology more useful in their practice, ranging from summarizing current medications to changing VEVA's speech rate. Eight of the providers (64%) reported they would be willing to use VEVA in its current form.

Conclusion Our EHR voice assistant technology was deemed usable by most providers. With further improvements, voice assistant tools such as VEVA have the potential to improve workflows and serve as a useful adjunct tool in health care.

Keywords

EHRs and systems - human–computer interaction - clinical decision support - natural language processing - clinical data management

Protection of Human and Animal Subjects

This study was reviewed and approved by the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Institutional Review Board.


Supplementary Material



Publication History

Received: 14 March 2023

Accepted: 16 September 2023

Accepted Manuscript online:
18 September 2023

Article published online:
13 March 2024

© 2024. Thieme. All rights reserved.

Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Rüdigerstraße 14, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany

 

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