8 research outputs found
Usability analysis of contending electronic health record systems
In this paper, we report measured usability of two leading EHR systems during procurement. A total of 18 users participated in paired-usability testing of three scenarios: ordering and managing medications by an outpatient physician, medicine administration by an inpatient nurse and scheduling of appointments by nursing staff. Data for audio, screen capture, satisfaction rating, task success and errors made was collected during testing. We found a clear difference between the systems for percentage of successfully completed tasks, two different satisfaction measures and perceived learnability when looking at the results over all scenarios. We conclude that usability should be evaluated during procurement and the difference in usability between systems could be revealed even with fewer measures than were used in our study. © 2019 American Psychological Association Inc. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe
Scalable Human-Machine Interaction System for Real-Time Care in the Internet of Health Things
The rise in numbers of individuals with weak immunity around the world and the aging of populations put an ever-growing pressure on healthcare and inevitably increases its cost. This phenomenon leads to larger portions of the population to which quality healthcare is not provided. To fight this trend, technological advancements in the Internet of Health Things aim to integrate smart sensors and devices to continuously monitor and assess the status of patients and older adults from the comfort of their own home at a fraction of the cost. Although solving specific problems each at a time advances the field and takes us a step closer to autonomous home care systems, the solution to these issues needs to consider the much larger picture to unify the approaches and cultivate benefits of many intelligent, but stand-alone, systems. The current work aims to explore the field of Internet of Health Things and its application to remote health monitoring and ambient assisted living for older adults. Picking up from where previous literature left off, this thesis proposes a multi-layered framework that provides a comprehensive solution to continuous healthcare. In particular, the framework was created with modularity, scalability, and expandability as the main priorities; to offer an all-purpose remedy to the problems in hand. To this end, the internal mechanisms of the framework are described in detail and the system is applied to remote health monitoring and ambient assisted living environments by interchanging its components. The implementations presented in this thesis expose the capability of the framework to harvest power of existing intelligent devices. Moreover, the two systems implemented consider multi-modal and natural human-machine interaction techniques that provide the user with the choice of their preferred interaction method. The main advantage of the proposed framework is that it offers an all-in-one solution to providing continuous healthcare without sacrificing the quality of care provided. On the contrary, the solution in this work allows deeper understanding of user's health, personalization, real-time analytics and recommendations, as well as aid for activities of daily living with state of the art technologies
Using Technology to Measure Older Adults' Social Networks for Health and Well-Being: A Scoping Review
Background and objectives: Social networks affect the health and well-being of older adults. Advancements in technology (e.g., digital devices and mHealth) enrich our ability to collect social networks and health data. The purpose of this scoping review was to identify and map the use of technology in measuring older adults' social networks for health and social care.
Research design and methods: The Joanna Briggs Institute methodology was followed. PubMed (MEDLINE), Sociological Abstracts, SocINDEX, CINAHL, and Web of Science were searched for relevant articles. Conference abstracts and proceedings were searched via Conference Papers Index, the American Sociological Society, and The Gerontological Society of America. Studies published in English from January 2004 to March 2020 that aimed to improve health or social care for older adults and used technology to measure social networks were included. Data were extracted by 2 independent reviewers using an a priori extraction tool.
Results: The majority of the 18 reviewed studies were pilot or simulation research conducted in Europe that focused on older adults living in the community. The various types of technologies used can be categorized as environment-based, person-based, and data-based.
Discussion and implications: Technology facilitates objective and longitudinal data collection on the social interactions and activities of older adults. The use of technology to measure older adults' social networks, however, is primarily in an exploratory phase. Multidisciplinary collaborations are needed to overcome operational, analytical, and implementation challenges. Future studies should leverage technologies for addressing social isolation and care for older adults, especially during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.ope