Health, technology and standards terms in plain words.
What a term means, and where it shows up when you design a health product. Written for designers, clinicians and anyone new to the field.
Showing 31 of 31 terms
A
- Alert fatigue
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Alert fatigue is when busy clinicians get so many safety warnings that they stop noticing them. They may then ignore important alerts along with the trivial ones.
In design: It shows up when a screen fires many warnings of equal weight, so nothing stands out.
- Assisted digital
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Assisted digital is help for people who cannot or will not finish an online task alone. Help can come by phone, in person or by chat.
In design: It shows up when a service plans a human route for people who lack skills, access or confidence online.
- Assistive technology AT
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Assistive technology is software or hardware that people with disabilities use to work with the web. Examples are screen readers, screen magnifiers and speech recognition.
In design: It shows up when a designer checks that a screen still works with a screen reader, magnifier or voice control.
C
- Clinical decision support CDS
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Clinical decision support is a digital tool that gives care teams useful, person-specific information at the moment they decide. Examples are drug interaction alerts, order sets and guidelines.
In design: It shows up as alerts, prompts and suggestions placed inside a clinician's normal workflow.
- Clinical Safety Officer CSO
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A Clinical Safety Officer is a named person, usually a trained health professional, who is responsible for the clinical safety of a health IT system. The role is set out in the NHS standard DCB0129.
In design: It shows up when a team building software for the NHS needs someone to lead hazard identification and sign off safety documents.
- Co-design
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Co-design means people who will use a service or product take part in designing it, alongside the designers. They share in the creative work instead of only giving feedback.
In design: It shows up in workshops where patients, carers and clinicians help shape a screen or a service.
- Conformance level
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A conformance level is how fully content meets WCAG. There are three levels: A is the base, AA is the middle and AAA is the highest.
In design: It shows up when a team sets a target such as AA and checks each screen against it.
D
- Deceptive design pattern
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A deceptive design pattern is an interface choice that steers people to act in the company's favour. It works by tricking, misdirecting, shaming or blocking the other choice. Also called a dark pattern.
In design: It shows up in consent screens where accepting is easy and declining is hidden or discouraged.
E
- Electronic health record EHR
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An electronic health record is a digital record built to be shared across care organisations. Authorised clinicians, and often the patient, can use it to see the whole picture of a person's health.
In design: It shows up as the clinical system behind a patient portal and behind most data a clinician sees.
- Electronic medical record EMR
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An electronic medical record is the digital version of a practice's paper chart. It holds the notes and data one practice collects, and it does not travel easily beyond that practice.
In design: It shows up in a single clinic's system, often described next to the wider EHR.
F
- FHIR
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FHIR stands for Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources. It is a standard from HL7 for exchanging health data electronically, built from small reusable pieces called resources.
In design: It shows up when an app reads or writes data in a health record through a standard interface.
- Formative evaluation
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Formative evaluation is testing done while a design is still being developed. Its aim is to find strengths, weaknesses and unexpected use errors so the design can improve.
In design: It shows up as early prototype tests with real users, repeated as the design changes.
H
- Hazard log
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A hazard log is a living record of the ways a health IT system could contribute to harm. For each hazard it notes the risk, the controls and what risk remains.
In design: It shows up when a team keeps safety evidence for a system and updates it with every change.
- Health literacy
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Health literacy is a person's ability to find, understand and use health information and services to make decisions. Organisations also share responsibility for making that information easy to use.
In design: It shows up when writing, layout and numbers on a health screen are checked against readers who are stressed or unwell.
I
- Information blocking
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Information blocking is a practice likely to interfere with access to, exchange of or use of electronic health information. In the United States the term comes from the 21st Century Cures Act.
In design: It shows up when a portal or record system delays, hides or limits what a patient can see of their own data.
- Interoperability
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Interoperability is the secure exchange of electronic health information between different systems and their authorised users. It lets records follow a patient across care settings.
In design: It shows up when data entered in one system must appear correctly in another, such as a portal and a hospital record.
P
- Patient portal
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A patient portal is a secure website where people can see their health information and use services online. Typical uses are booking appointments, refilling prescriptions, viewing test results and messaging the care team.
In design: It shows up as the main patient-facing view of a health record.
- Patient-reported experience measure PREM
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A PREM is a questionnaire that asks patients how they experienced their care. It covers things like communication, responsiveness and coordination, not the health result itself.
In design: It shows up when a service adds a short feedback survey after a visit or an online task.
- Patient-reported outcome measure PROM
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A PROM is a questionnaire that patients fill in about their own health. It covers things such as symptoms, function and quality of life.
In design: It shows up as survey screens inside apps and portals, where clear questions and low effort matter.
- Plain language
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Plain language is content that is clear and easy to understand, written for the people who will read it. It avoids jargon and complexity.
In design: It shows up in instructions, labels, error messages and results that a stressed reader must grasp quickly.
- Proxy access
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Proxy access lets an authorised person, such as a carer or guardian, view or use another person's portal record. It can have its own login and its own level of access.
In design: It shows up when a screen must show who is acting for whom, and what that person may see.
R
- Reference range
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A reference range is the span of values seen in a group of otherwise healthy people for a lab test. A result outside it may or may not mean a problem.
In design: It shows up beside a lab number, often as a bar or a flag, and needs plain wording to avoid alarm.
- Remote patient monitoring RPM
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Remote patient monitoring uses connected devices to collect health data, often outside a clinic, and send it to a care provider. The provider reviews the data to manage the person's condition.
In design: It shows up as the patient app that logs readings and the clinician dashboard that reviews them.
S
- Screen reader
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A screen reader is software that reads a web page aloud for people who cannot read the text on screen.
In design: It shows up when a designer checks that headings, form labels and error messages make sense when heard, not seen.
- Software as a medical device SaMD
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Software as a medical device is software intended for a medical purpose that does this on its own, without being part of a hardware device. The definition comes from the IMDRF.
In design: It shows up when an app does more than display information, such as analysing data for a medical purpose.
- Success criterion
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A success criterion is a testable statement in WCAG that is not tied to one technology. Content either meets it or does not.
In design: It shows up in audits and in Showcase cards that cite a specific number, such as 1.4.1.
- Summative evaluation
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Summative evaluation is testing near the end of development to show that intended users can use a design safely and effectively. In device guidance it is called human factors validation testing.
In design: It shows up as a final round of realistic tests, after the design has settled.
T
- Teach-back
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Teach-back is a way of checking understanding: the person is asked to say in their own words what they need to know or do. It tests the explanation, not the person.
In design: It shows up in screens and scripts that ask people to confirm instructions, such as a medicine plan, in their own words.
- Telehealth
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Telehealth is the use of electronic and telecommunication tools to deliver health services at a distance. It covers care, education and administration, and it is a wider term than telemedicine.
In design: It shows up as video visits, secure messaging and other remote contact with a care team.
U
- Use error
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A use error is a user action, or a missed action, that differs from what the maker expected and leads to an unexpected result. It is not caused only by the device failing.
In design: It shows up when testing finds people mixing up doses, units or buttons, and the design is changed to prevent it.
W
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WCAG
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WCAG is a set of recommendations from the W3C for making web content usable by people with many kinds of disability. It is written as testable success criteria at levels A, AA and AAA.
In design: It shows up as the standard that health product teams and Showcase cards cite for accessibility checks.
Definitions are written for this site in plain words and are not clinical, legal or compliance advice. Each one links to the pages that explain it in context.