User-interface design and evaluation in a mobile application for detecting latent tuberculosis

Treatment and monitoring of tuberculosis have been met with various interventions to reduce its prevalence. One such intervention, to detect and prevent latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI), is the tuberculin skin test (TST), for which an induration response on a patient’s arm is an indication of LTBI. The test requires the patient to return to a clinic 48 to 72 hours after TST administration for assessment of the response. This is a challenge because of financial and accessibility obstacles, especially in under-resourced regions. A mobile health (mHealth) application (app) has been developed for remote assessment of the response to the TST. The previous version of the LTBI screening app, however, had usability limitations. The app is intended for use by patients and healthcare workers; thus, ease of use is important. There is a lack of literature on the usability of mHealth apps, especially in under-resourced settings. In this project, the user interface of the app was redesigned and tested. The Information Systems Research (ISR) framework was integrated with design thinking for this purpose. The project included creating mock-ups of the interface which were iteratively prototyped with ten student participants, adjusted, and assessed according to the user feedback. Thereafter, the Android Studio software was used to adjust the user interface based on the insights gained through the progression of prototypes. The usability of the updated app was tested and assessed with ten healthcare workers at a community health clinic in Khayelitsha in Cape Town, South Africa. Data collection and analysis comprised both qualitative and quantitative methods. Observations, the “think aloud” approach, and the post-study system usability questionnaire were used for data collection. Student participants highlighted various usability limitations of the app during each iteration. The major usability limitations included: the complex image capture protocol, misunderstanding of instructions, and time taken to capture images. Engagement with students allowed for improvement of the app interface and enabled adequate preparation for testing in the field with end-users. Furthermore, improving the app interface before engaging with healthcare workers, enabled context specific limitations that would affect the usability of the app, to be explored during the field testing. These included safety concerns when using the app and the privacy of health information. Future work should explore how these concerns, as well as other social factors, affect usability. Furthermore, improving the image capture protocol is required for improving the usability of the app

Nurses’ Perceived Comparative Usefulness between an Icon-based Electronic Clinical Dashboard and an Integrated Clinical System

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. June 2019. Major: Nursing. Advisor: Connie White Delaney. 1 computer file (PDF); viii, 113 pages.Nurses place a high value on spending as much time as possible directly caring for patients. Optimizing the health system to allow nurses adequate patient-centered time is essential for improved patient experiences, improved health of populations, reducing the overall cost of healthcare, and improving the work life of health care clinicians and staff. As nurses are asked repeatedly to do more with less in a constantly changing and demanding work environment, it will be essential that technology is viewed by nurses as a partner. Pivotal to a successful integration of the technology is understanding nurses’ intentions to use the technology within their practice. The purpose of this research is to compare nurses’ perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEU), and workload burden for the Integrated Clinical System (ICS) and the icon-based electronic clinical dashboard system, INFUZE. The comparison of the nurses’ perceptions between the ICS and INFUZE, was conducted via a retrospective descriptive, comparative mixed-methods design using secondary data. Data from a private clinical database representing 189 registered nurses (RNs) practicing from September 2012 through December 2012 was used in the secondary data analysis. Data compared RNs’ perceptions of the current electronic health record (EHR) system and a home-grown (native) prototype called INFUZE. The dataset included quantitative measurement regarding usefulness, ease of use, and cognitive workload as measured by either a five-point (Technology Assessment Model [TAM]) or seven-point (NASA Task Load Index [TLX]) Likert scale. To complement and provide further insight, focus group data was also included and analyzed using a constant comparative and content analysis. The mixed-method design compared nurses’ perceptions of the availability of patient data between two systems and measured the need for timely access to pertinent patient data. New insights for clinical data use to support nurses were discovered. This descriptive, comparative mixed methods study compared nurses’ PU, PEU, and workload burden for the ICS and the icon-based electronic clinical dashboard system, INFUZE. The research approach used an extended conceptual framework, utilization the TAM and NASA TLX models and the inclusion of external variables of support resources, experience, demographics, and relevance to task. The secondary dataset included ICS (N=131) questionnaire data INFUZE (n=85) questionnaire data complete between September 19, 2012 and January 31, 2013. Transcripts of three voluntary focus groups were analyzed using content analysis methods to synthesize the feedback of 13 nurse participants. For PEU and PU, ICS was favored over INFUZE. For workload, INFUZE was favored over ICS. Focus group analysis revealed that there would be value in implementing an integrated dashboard interface if it is helpful in consuming actionable data rapidly; however, if it is not helpful, the interface would be irrelevant and/or burdensome. Furthermore, nurses considered the learning curve for new technology burdensome. In summary, the use of icons and/or dashboards tailored to the specific needs of nursing has potential to improve nurses’ experience, if the dashboard is a seamless part of the workflow and is integrated within existing technology. Further research is needed to understand human-computer interaction for specific interfaces in situ, toward the goal of developing an interface that is effective as an integrated and seamless companion to the core EHR

Information Systems and Healthcare XXII: Characterizing and Visualizing the Quality of Health Information

We all need ways to assess the quality of the information we look for, but this task is critically important when we are seeking health information. Healthcare consumers increasingly seek and use health information to address their health concerns. However, many health consumers lack the time and expertise required to make solid judgments about the quality of health information they encounter. A full range of quality appraisal methods for health information offer help, yet health consumers use those methods infrequently. Health consumers need better support to overcome barriers to efficiency, scalability, and transparency often associated with this breadth of valuable methods. Furthermore, they need ways to assess the quality of health information they find in the context of their own, individually situated needs. Our goals were to investigate the concept of health information quality and to explore how we can provide health consumers with better support by highlighting, rather than hiding, important aspects of health information quality. First, by reviewing and synthesizing criteria used by a broad range of quality appraisal methods for health information, we identified four focal characteristics of health information quality: content, reference, authorship, and publisher. Together, these four characteristics of intrinsic quality provide an organizing framework for health consumers to assess the quality of health information along multiple dimensions according to their own needs. Next, we used a user-center approach to design a prototype tool that concretely illustrates our framework by allowing the user to highlight multiple dimensions of health information quality. We present a usage case example of this illustrative tool, which visualizes the quality of MEDLINE search results. Our work provides a new perspective on health information quality by acknowledging and supporting consumers\u27 needs for transparency and flexibility as they take a prominent role in health information quality assessment

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

Front-Line Physicians' Satisfaction with Information Systems in Hospitals

Day-to-day operations management in hospital units is difficult due to continuously varying situations, several actors involved and a vast number of information systems in use. The aim of this study was to describe front-line physicians' satisfaction with existing information systems needed to support the day-to-day operations management in hospitals. A cross-sectional survey was used and data chosen with stratified random sampling were collected in nine hospitals. Data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistical methods. The response rate was 65 % (n = 111). The physicians reported that information systems support their decision making to some extent, but they do not improve access to information nor are they tailored for physicians. The respondents also reported that they need to use several information systems to support decision making and that they would prefer one information system to access important information. Improved information access would better support physicians' decision making and has the potential to improve the quality of decisions and speed up the decision making process.Peer reviewe

College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources: 18th Annual Report August 1, 2010-July 31, 2011

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources was selected as one of 16 recognized innovators of undergraduate education. The report includes a list of administrators and staff, the academic unit administrators, CASNER standing committees, departmental news and events, information about students and student organizations, honors, Dean\u27s List, degrees conferred, graduate fellowships, scholarships, alumni, Curriculum Committee actions, substitutions and waivers, distance education, recruitment, retention, and placement, international affairs, teaching faculty, faculty awards and recognition, faculty publications, faculty presentations, grants funded, faculty appointments, undergraduate student enrollment, graduate student enrollment, and enrollment charts. Highlights from the College during 2010-2011 include: The Professional Program in Veterinary Medicine Graduates (PPVM) graduated the first 23 students this spring at the Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine commencement. Three of the top four students in ISU\u27s graduating class were from the PPVM program. During the past six years (2005-2010) CASNR undergraduate enrollment has grown 48.9%. Our College has the highest retention rate (90% freshman to sophomore) at UNL. We have 40 student organizations that enrich the undergraduate experience. During the 2010-2011 academic year, the College awarded 932 scholarships to 800 students amounting to over $863,644. CASNR has a global campus with 69 students studying in 10 countries during the 2010-2011 academic year and summer 2011. Nearly 418 students participated in credentialed undergraduate research (56 in UCARE and the remainder in for-credit undergraduate research activities) and another 292 reported that they had a formal internship. Based on the Nebraska Foundation records (through May 2011 graduation), the College has 20,981 graduates. This annual report is dedicated to Walt and Virginia Bagley in recognition of their generous gift of Prairie Pines to the University of Nebraska Foundation. The 145 acres of land just east of Lincoln will be a research arboretum that will serve as an outdoor learning laboratory

Columbus State University Honors College: Senior Theses, Fall 2019

This is a collection of senior theses written by honors students at Columbus State University in 2019.https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/honors_theses/1000/thumbnail.jp

E-Learning

Technology development, mainly for telecommunications and computer systems, was a key factor for the interactivity and, thus, for the expansion of e-learning. This book is divided into two parts, presenting some proposals to deal with e-learning challenges, opening up a way of learning about and discussing new methodologies to increase the interaction level of classes and implementing technical tools for helping students to make better use of e-learning resources. In the first part, the reader may find chapters mentioning the required infrastructure for e-learning models and processes, organizational practices, suggestions, implementation of methods for assessing results, and case studies focused on pedagogical aspects that can be applied generically in different environments. The second part is related to tools that can be adopted by users such as graphical tools for engineering, mobile phone networks, and techniques to build robots, among others. Moreover, part two includes some chapters dedicated specifically to e-learning areas like engineering and architecture

Comic Convergence: Toward a Prismatic Rhetoric for Composition Studies

This dissertation examines the feminist intersections of composition studies, visual rhetoric, and comics studies in order to identify a rhetorically interdisciplinary approach to composition that moves beyond composition studies’ persistent separation of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, rhetoric and ideology, and analysis and composition. Chapter one transgresses the qualitative/quantitative divide using keyword analysis and visualization of 2,573 dissertation and thesis abstracts published between 1979 – 2012 to engage in what composition studies scholar Derek Mueller terms a “distant reading” of the extent and contexts of composition studies’ self-identified interdisciplinarity. Complementing my more traditional literature review, the results of this analysis validate the necessity of my analytical and pedagogical interventions by suggesting that composition studies has not yet addressed comics through the feminist intersections of visual rhetoric and critical pedagogy. Chapters two and three develop a rhetorical analytical approach to comics that moves beyond comics studies’ persistent separation of rhetoric and ideology by positing conflict as an identifiable form of rhetorical persuasion in the Martha Washington comics. These comics were collaboratively created by Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons between 1989 – 2007. Following feminist rhetorician Susan Jarratt’s case for rhetorical conflict as a pedagogical tool and extending Chicana feminist Chela Sandoval’s conceptualization of meta-ideologizing in which oppressive ideologies are re-signified via recontextualizations that juxtapose ‘old’ and ‘new’ signs of ideological meaning, I explore the rhetorically persuasive conflict arising from visual, conceptual, and embodied juxtapositions of race, class, and gender made visible in these comics. Chapter four outlines a feminist, critical, visual rhetorical – what I call prismatic – approach to composition pedagogy that requires (1) contexts in which differences and conflicts can be identified and engaged, (2) explicable sites of intersection between ideological perspectives and rhetorical construction, and (3) models for the transition from ideological critique to (re)composition. This is not an add-pop-genre-and-stir approach to composition pedagogy; rather, it intentionally deploys comics’ inherent multimodality as a challenge to students’ often narrow definitions of rhetoric and composition

Understanding Game-based Approaches for Improving Sustainable Water Governance : The Potential of Serious Games to Solve Water Problems

The sustainable governance of water resources relies on processes of multi-stakeholder collaborations and interactions that facilitate knowledge co-creation and social learning. Governance systems are often fragmented, forming a barrier to adequately addressing the myriad of challenges affecting water resources, including climate change, increased urbanized populations, and pollution. Transitions towards sustainable water governance will likely require innovative learning partnerships between public, private, and civil society stakeholders. It is essential that such partnerships involve vertical and horizontal communication of ideas and knowledge, and an enabling and democratic environment characterized by informal and open discourse. There is increasing interest in learning-based transitions. Thus far, much scholarly thinking and, to a lesser degree, empirical research has gone into understanding the potential impact of social learning on multi-stakeholder settings. The question of whether such learning can be supported by forms of serious gaming has hardly been asked. This Special Issue critically explores the potential of serious games to support multi-stakeholder social learning and collaborations in the context of water governance. Serious games may involve simulations of real-world events and processes and are challenge players to solve contemporary societal problems; they, therefore, have a purpose beyond entertainment. They offer a largely untapped potential to support social learning and collaboration by facilitating access to and the exchange of knowledge and information, enhancing stakeholder interactions, empowering a wider audience to participate in decision making, and providing opportunities to test and analyze the outcomes of policies and management solutions. Little is known about how game-based approaches can be used in the context of collaborative water governance to maximize their potential for social learning. While several studies have reported examples of serious games, there is comparably less research about how to assess the impacts of serious games on social learning and transformative change