Software Quality Evaluation of the Laboratory Information System Used in the Santa Catarina State Integrated Telemedicine and Telehealth System

A laboratory information system (LIS) manages information about patients, examinations, results, and quality control. In this context, software quality is important in order to prevent risks for the patient. Studies show that many LISs have a low quality degree, and although the ISO/IEC 25010 standard defines software quality in general, so far there is no specific customization for a quality evaluation model tailored for such systems. This paper presents a case study applying a customized evaluation model - the AdEQUATE model - in order to evaluate the software quality of a LIS widely used in the State of Santa Catarina, Brazil - the LACEN system - from the perspective of its end users. Analyzing the characteristics of the LACEN system, we customized the AdEQUATE model - a model for quality evaluation of telemedicine systems based on the ISO/IEC 25010 standard through the use of a questionnaire. The questionnaire has been answered by 69 users (including physicians and biochemists), and its answers were analyzed using descriptive statistics. In general, the quality of the LACEN system has been considered as good, specifically for characteristics like effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, freedom from risk, functional suitability, and security. On the other hand, few characteristics have been considered of low quality, including performance efficiency and compatibility. Also, the collected data shows that it is feasible to use AdEQUATE's systematically derived questionnaire for detailed observations of quality degrees of the ISO/IEC 25010 standard characteristics and subcharacteristics.