Long before HP was known for PCs, laser printers and Carly Fiorina, it was a manufacturer of test equipment for electrical engineers. One reason its products succeeded was because they were designed by the very people who ultimately used them. HP designers possessed a deep understanding of the product use case and empathy for the user — a highly educated and skilled professional with little tolerance for inefficiency. HP’s product design philosophy was called “the next bench,” and it worked extremely well.
In healthcare, physicians — also highly educated and skilled professionals with little tolerance for inefficiency — are obliged to use electronic health records (EHR) systems, most of which (from a physician’s perspective) work quite poorly.
