Primary care provider's acceptance of health information exchange utilizing IHE XDS.

OBJECTIVE

We assessed primary care providers' perception of a health information exchange system (HIE) based on IHE XDS in the metropolitan area of Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, Germany.

DESIGN

An application enabling access to medical documents in an XDS Affinity Domain was developed. We examined usability and factors related to user acceptance.

MEASUREMENTS

User perception was probed using system usability scale (SUS) and semi-structured interviews. The framework analysis was used in the review and interpretation of the interview data.

RESULTS

The evaluation was performed on 7 participants. The SUS showed an above average usability with a median score of 77.5. Participants submitted suggestions for additional features and improvement of usability. Poor integration of functionality into existing workflows was most frequently criticized.

CONCLUSION

We found, that, while usability was well perceived by primary care providers, challenges remain in adoption of XDS based IHE.