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Testing the Usability of Two Automated Home-Based Patient-Management Systems

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Abstract

To explore to what extent observation and semistructured in-depth interviews provide effective tools for usability testing of two automated home-based systems aimed at monitoring patients' health status at home and improving self-care. Telephone-Linked Care for Diet Adherence in Dyslipidemia (TLC-DietAid) used computer telephony to interact with users and Home Asthma Telemonitoring System (HAT System) used a combination of Personal Digital Assistant (palmtops) and the Internet for similar purposes. Both systems were evaluated in two separate pilot studies. Our pilot studies uncovered “medium-specific” and “content-specific” issues that addressed either the process of the interaction or its content. The results demonstrated that patient-users tended to evaluate each system on the basis of how it fit into everyday life and corresponded to personal preferences. The methodology also allowed the system designers to understand users' concerns and the context of adoption in order to introduce necessary changes to the design to address such concerns.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Information Systems Unit, Boston University Medical Campus, 560 Harrison Avenue, Suite 405, Boston, Massachusetts, 02118

    Ramesh Farzanfar, Joseph Finkelstein & Robert H. Friedman

Authors
  1. Ramesh Farzanfar
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  2. Joseph Finkelstein
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  3. Robert H. Friedman
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Correspondence to Ramesh Farzanfar.

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Farzanfar, R., Finkelstein, J. & Friedman, R.H. Testing the Usability of Two Automated Home-Based Patient-Management Systems. Journal of Medical Systems 28, 143–153 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOMS.0000023297.50379.3c

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOMS.0000023297.50379.3c

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