Digital team coaching for workplace communication: longitudinal evaluation of recipients’ perceptions

Purpose The purpose of this study is to describe the implementation of a digital-based team coaching intervention aimed at improving team communication in the workplace through social network visualization. The study examined recipients’ perceptions of the intervention at two time points and assessed the temporal stability of various factors, including the intervention’s integrity, design, transferability, acceptance and the usability of the adopted visualization tool. The moderating role of digital usability was also evaluated. Design/methodology/approach Four team coaching sessions were delivered to 62 participants from seven teams across three departments within a large public health-care organization in Northern Italy. Perceptions of the intervention dimensions were collected after the second and fourth sessions. Findings Results indicated that, at both time points, recipients appreciated the intervention’s integrity and usability more than its design, transferability and acceptance. Furthermore, no significant changes in recipients’ perceptions were observed over time. The transferability of the intervention was significantly associated with its acceptance, but only when the usability of the digital tool was high. Research limitations/implications The study enriches existing literature on digital interventions in group communication by focusing on process dimensions like recipients’ perceptions of various aspects and the implementation process. Furthermore, the study underscores the potential of integrating specific techniques such as sociomapping and coaching within health-care organizations, encouraging more research and development in these areas. Practical implications The study emphasizes the critical role of usability and integrity in digital-based team coaching interventions, suggesting that high-quality, user-friendly tools not only lead to initial effectiveness but also sustain positive impacts over time, while also increasing transferability and acceptance. Originality/value The present study uniquely deploys a longitudinal approach to examine recipients’ perceptions of a digital-based intervention that combines social network visualization and team coaching to enhance team communication

Visualizing and Interacting With Social Determinants of Health

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the use of information visualization to represent specific social determinants of health, and to examine the benefits of such representation for health policymaking. Methods: The study developed a prototype for a visualization tool (www.healthvisualization.ca), which represents the conceptual framework for the social determinants of health (CSDH) and new ways to represent related health equity indicators. This tool was used by study participants. The experience of these participants and the usability of the tool were evaluated using qualitative semi-structured interviews. Results: Visualizing the CSDH framework helps to present the social determinants of health more effectively, allowing better visualization of indicators. Communicating healthcare indicators to policymakers is a complex task because of the complexity of these indicators. Conclusions: The contribution of information visualization to policymaking could only be understood by taking into consideration the different factors that impact health decision-making and evidence uptake

Current Management Issues in Health Information Technology

Health information technology can improve quality care delivery, thereby boosting the healthcare business reputation. However, it can negatively affect quality care delivery and lead to a negative business reputation if not efficiently managed. This single qualitative study aimed to explore the causes of the inefficiencies in managing health information technology and strategies that healthcare organizations use to ensure its efficiencies. In a purposive sample, the researcher conducted telephone interviews with twenty-one participants from Lancaster General Hospital. The participants comprised medical doctors, Doctor of Nursing practitioners, managers of health informatics, and informatics specialists working in various divisions and E-health operations. Other participants included the director of quality improvement within Epic Solutions and clinical applications, the director of health information management, the entity and privacy officer, the risk department manager, the executive director of ACO inter-community care, the pharmacist, and the director of operations. Data collected and analyzed yielded four themes: Users face various management challenges leading to HIT management efficiencies, primarily due to a need for adequate training. Strategies used to ensure the efficient management of health information technology comprised the use of robust policies and procedures, Management issues leading to the disruption of health information technology due to the issues with the design of tools of HIT, and Users reported more potential than actual impact on business reputation as judged through external organization ratings. This study could positively impact social change by fostering efficiencies in its adoption, implementation, and use, which could enhance better care delivery

Introducing Transferability and the Upmds Usability Framework in a Multiple-Device System

This research introduces the concept of transferability into the usability construct and creates the Usability Paradigm for Multiple Device System (UPMDS) to conceptualize and quantify the usability in multiple device scenarios. This study fills the literature gap that no effective method exists in measuring transferability and in quantifying usability in a multiple device context. This study also answers the research questions regarding the impact of task complexity, user experience, and device order on the total usability of the system. Study one follows a systematic approach to develop, validate, and apply a new questionnaire tailored specifically to measure the transferability within a multiple device system. The System Transferability Questionnaire (STQ) is obtained after validation with 15 question items. In a software usability study, the STQ demonstrated excellent internal reliability and validity. Results show that the STQ is effective in capturing four factors regarding transferability, which are transfer experience (TE), overall experience (OE), consistency perception (CP) and functionality perception (FP). Validation results show good convergent, discriminant, criterion and nomonlogical validity. Study two adopts a systematic tool to consolidate usability constructs into a total usability score. The study utilizes principal component analysis (PCA) to determine the weight of the four usability components (satisfaction, transferability, effectiveness, and efficiency), which is used when obtaining the total usability score. Results show slightly different weights for the four components. This quantitative tool can be applied in different usability context in which multiple devices are involved. Usability specialists are encouraged to adjust the tool based on different usability scenarios. Study three investigates the impact of task complexity, user experience, and device order on the total system usability. Results show that the total usability score is not affected by task complexity, user experience or device order. However, lower physical task complexity leads to longer performance time and lower errors from the users. High experienced users have significantly lower errors made in tasks. The machine order also has divergent results. When the mini-lathe machine was used first, users had better transferability results but poorer performance outcomes as compared to when the drill press was used first

D7.4 Validation 4

Armitt, G., Stoyanov, S., Hensgens, J., Smithies, A., Braidman, I., Mauerhofer, C., Osenova, P., Simov, K., Berlanga, A. J., Van Bruggen, J., Greller, W., Rebedea, T., Posea, V., Trausan-Matu, S., Dupre, D., Salem, H., Dessus, P., Loiseau, M., Westerhout, E., Monachesi, P., Koblische, R., Hoisl, B., Haley, D., & Wild, F. (2011). D7.4 Validation 4. LTfLL-project.This deliverable describes the objectives, approach, planning and results of the third pilot round, in which both individual and threaded services underwent validation. The two goals of this round were to provide input to the LTfLL exploitation plan and roadmap (deliverable 2.5). 531 participants (316 learners) took part in the pilots, which used LTfLL services based on five different languages. The average timespan of the pilots was three weeks and involved learners, tutors, teaching managers, the LTfLL team and Technology Enhanced Learning experts. The validation approach was based on Prototypical Validation Topics derived from the Round 2 validation topics, which refocused the validation topics on exploitation and allowed conclusions to be drawn across all services. Results demonstrated the areas of strength and weakness of each service, informing the selling points and barriers to adoption within the exploitation strategy, as well as suggesting possible further contexts of use. All services were noted to have high relevance in addressing burning issues for organizations, but further improvements to accuracy from a user viewpoint are required. Results on future enhancements to improve likelihood of adoption contribute to the roadmap. Results also provide an indication of each service's current readiness for adoption and provided insights into transferability issues. The overall conclusion is that some LTfLL services are more ready than others for adoption now, with some being currently more suited to sustainability in research settings.The work on this publication has been sponsored by the LTfLL STREP that is funded by the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme. Contract 212578 [http://www.ltfll-project.org

The Validity, Generalizability and Feasibility of Summative Evaluation Methods in Visual Analytics

Many evaluation methods have been used to assess the usefulness of Visual Analytics (VA) solutions. These methods stem from a variety of origins with different assumptions and goals, which cause confusion about their proofing capabilities. Moreover, the lack of discussion about the evaluation processes may limit our potential to develop new evaluation methods specialized for VA. In this paper, we present an analysis of evaluation methods that have been used to summatively evaluate VA solutions. We provide a survey and taxonomy of the evaluation methods that have appeared in the VAST literature in the past two years. We then analyze these methods in terms of validity and generalizability of their findings, as well as the feasibility of using them. We propose a new metric called summative quality to compare evaluation methods according to their ability to prove usefulness, and make recommendations for selecting evaluation methods based on their summative quality in the VA domain.Comment: IEEE VIS (VAST) 201

Usability Challenges with Insulin Pump Devices in Diabetes Care: What Trainers Observe with First-Time Pump Users

Insulin pumps are designed for the self-management of diabetes mellitus in patients and are known for their complexity of use. Pump manufacturers engage trainers to teach patients how to use the devices correctly to control the symptoms of their disease. Usability research related to insulin pumps and other infusion pumps with first-time users as participants has centered on the relationship between user interface design and the effectiveness of task completion. According to prior research, the characteristics of system behavior in a real life environment remain elusive. A suitable approach to acquire information about potential usability problems encountered by first-time users is to obtain this information from the health care professionals who train them. The purpose of the study was to discover the lived experiences and shared impressions of insulin pump trainers during training sessions with first-time users. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to uncover the phenomena associated with usability challenges that first-time users of insulin pumps face when learning to use the device. Six participants representing a homogeneous sample were recruited from a wide geographic area in the United States, and semi-structured interviews containing open-ended questions were conducted with the respondents. The data from the lived experiences and shared impressions of the participants were used to develop the following five super-ordinate themes: Emotion-charged Environment, Personalized Training, Safety Issues and Disaster Planning, Professional Dedication, and The Voice. The essence of participants’ experience was described around the pivotal moment when the training sessions are successfully completed and insulin pump therapy becomes alive. The findings of this study have implications for information systems professionals who conduct research on the safe design and usability of safety critical medical devices. In addition, the findings from this study create opportunities for practice to improve the initiation of insulin pump therapy in patients with diabetes

Evaluation Of Information Visualization For Decision Making Support In An Emergency Department Information System.

The purpose of this dissertation is to propose an evaluation framework to assess various IV techniques in EDIS and provide recommendations for developers