Development and usability testing of an audit and feedback tool for anesthesiologists

Background: We describe the creation and evaluation of a personal audit & feedback (A&F) tool for anesthesiologists. Methods: A survey aimed at capturing barriers for personal improvement efforts and feedback preferences was administered to attending anesthesiologists. The results informed the design and implementation of 4 dashboards that display information on individual practice characteristics as well as comparative performance on several quality metrics. The dashboards’ usability was then tested using the human-centered design framework. Results: Anesthesiologists listed lack of information on current practice as the main barrier for improvement. Regarding usability, participants gave the dashboards an average score of 3.8 (scale 1-5) on consistency, learnability, and information organization, and performed the assigned tasks well, with an average score of 89% (range, 79-100%). Conclusions: We describe the design, implementation and usability testing of an innovative tool that utilizes data derived from the EHR system to provide A&F to anesthesiology providers.