Heart failure is currently the single commonest cause of readmissions in hospitals. Thorough testing of the heart failure dashboard is essential to ensure its successful work and contribute to the reduction of the risk of hospitalization for heart failure. It allows monitoring patients’ health in between episodes of care, as well as identifying patients with this condition in various medical records. Thus, the purpose of testing is to ensure that all the necessary qualities of the dashboard are functional. Testing strategy includes testing and evaluating such “data points as care assessment need score, ejection fraction (EF), medication concordance, laboratory tests, and history of heart failure” (Foster et al., 2020, p. 154). Positive and negative scenarios are used to test different aspects of data entry and dashboard usability, and to identify any possible flaws in functionality.
The test scenario was developed by analyzing all possible user actions, which included accurate data entry and retention. The items and functions that need to be tested within this scenario involve but are not limited to the following:
- the title of the dashboard represents its content;
- the design of the dashboard accurately corresponds to the requirements;
- the interface is convenient to use;
- the entry functions for the medication concordance and laboratory test results are accurate and up-to-date;
- multiple ejection fraction values should not be generated;
- all ICD codes are present and correct.
A number of steps has to be taken in order to avoid any complications or challenges when documenting the results of the validation and verification processes. Discrepancies with the specification and requirements have to be reported in the accurate and comprehensible manner. They may include missing ICD codes, “incorrect medication issue dates, patients incorrectly noted as nonconcordant for medications, and incorrect dates of last cardiology appointments” (Foster et al., 2020, p. 157). Factors such as specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value have to be analyzed, assessed, and reported to allow further integration and fixing. Thus, both during and after the validation process, test results will be documented and mitigated according to the following plan:
- defining the criteria for all the items to check;
- recording the results of the validation;
- reporting all the defects found during the check;
- collecting statistical data and feedback from users and other stakeholders;
- reporting suggestions or comments for fixing the defects (“Testing healthcare applications”, 2020).
The dashboard’s performance will have to be evaluated over the set period of time to ensure its successful functioning. Continuous integration has to be assured as one of the main conditions for fixing the defects identified and mitigating the outcomes of the testing process (Banerjee et al., 2016). Testing documentation will include reports on the activities that were conducted, defects that have been fixed, as well as summaries of improvements and flaws that still exist. In addition, the feedback received from the users has to be analyzed and reported in order to promote further changes. Completed in this way, testing documentation will provide all stakeholders with a better insight and understanding of the testing process. It will also allow analyzing the efficiency of the product and determine the aspects and modules that have to be improved. Regularly clarifying the requirements and making testing a transparent process will ensure that the dashboard will be an efficient and helpful tool to help improve the lives of patients with heart failure.
References
Banerjee, D., Thompson, C., Kell, C., Shetty, R., Vetteth, Y., Grossman, H., DiBiase, A., & Fowler, M. (2016). An informatics-based approach to reducing heart failure all-cause readmissions: The Stanford heart failure dashboard. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 24(3), 550-555.
Foster, M., Albanese, C., Chen, Q., Sethares, K. A., Evans, S., Lehmann, L. S., Spencer, J., & Joseph, J. (2020). Heart failure dashboard design and validation to improve care of veterans.Applied Clinical Informatics, 11(01), 153-159.
Testing healthcare applications – Tips and test scenarios (Part 2). (2020). Software Testing Help – Free Software Testing & Development Courses.