Usability of home cholesterol test kits and their impact on patients\u27 decision

Release of home health testing kits into the market has enabled people to take care of their own health. Misinterpretation of results and delays in treatments are the major concerns of the doctors. In the present study, two cholesterol test kits, AccuchekÒ Instant plusÒ and Home Access® Instant Cholesterol Test, were compared on the basis of user performance, accuracy, and the patient’s future medical decisions based on the test results. The study was conducted with 30 participants, 15 men and 15 women. Participants tested their overall cholesterol level with both kits. In addition, a clinical cholesterol evaluation, the medical gold standard, was performed. The usability of both test kits was evaluated through questionnaires, user task performance, and comparison with the clinical evaluation. Participants were questioned on how they would use the information once they had seen the result from the first test kit. Results of the study found that regardless of the kit used, participants always found the first kit used as the more usable kit. When participants were asked to provide a decision on future health care, a predominate number of participants said they would change their lifestyle rather than visit a doctor regardless of their cholesterol level. This finding highlights physicians’ concerns that patients may delay treatment for potentially serious conditions even when they have the available results

iPhone in NASA Ground Operations

A comprehensive review of the literature and historical background of NASA established a need for an easy-to-implement technological improvement to displaying procedures which is cost effective and risk reducing. Previous unsuccessful attempts have led this team to explore the practicality of using a mobile handheld device. The major products, inputs, resources, constraints, planning and effort required for consideration of this type of solution were outlined. After analyzing the physical, environmental, life-cycle, functional, and socio-technical requirements, a Functional Analysis was performed to describe the top-level, second-level, and third-level functions of the system requirements. In addition, the risk/value proposition of conversion to a new technology was considered and gave a blueprint for transitioning along with the tasks necessary to implement the device into the Vehicle Assembly Building's (VAB) current infrastructure. A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) described the elemental work items of the implementation. Once the viability of this system was confirmed, a device was selected through use of technical design comparison methods including the Pugh Matrix and House of Quality. Comparison and evaluation of the Apple iPhone, Motorola Q, Blackberry, PC Notebook, and PDA revealed that the iPhone is the most suitable device for this task. This paper outlines the device design/ architecture, as well as some of the required infrastructure

A symbolic framework, tradeoff matrix, and empirical studies of procedures and procedure following

Currently, procedures are designed based on experience rather than engineering principles, which lead to inconsistency during implementation. Also, there are no standard unambiguous definitions of procedure characteristics. Hence, it is difficult to compare across research studies on procedures and procedure-following. Additionally, basic knowledge regarding the effect of factors on system operation such as procedure detail, the presence of a time constraint, operator experience, and operator flexibility to deviate from procedures, is unknown. In order to address these problems with procedures and procedure-following, a conceptual model was developed to synthesize past research on procedure-following. The conceptual model helps in understanding procedure following based on the final outcome of the implementing the procedure, rather than on compliance or noncompliance. In order to address the recommendations suggested to improve performance from past research, a symbolic framework was developed to define procedure characteristics consistently across different fields of application. Further analysis of the procedure characteristics definitions in the symbolic framework led to the understanding that there are interactions among the procedure characteristics. A procedure designer trade-off matrix was designed to identify the interaction among thevarious procedure characteristics. The matrix shows how improving certain characteristics could impair other procedure characteristics. Based on the interactions established in the trade-off matrix, the factors affecting procedure-following that can be independently controlled by procedure designers were identified, including the presence of a time constraint, operator experience, and operator flexibility to deviate from procedure. Two human subject experiments were conducted to understand the effect of these factors on performance during procedure-following. Results of the experiments suggest that introduction of a time constraint reduces overall performance, and operator experience improves performance when a time constraint is present. No substantial conclusion was drawn regarding the effect of operator flexibility to deviate from procedures. This research provides a trade-off matrix to guide procedure designers in designing procedures. The definitions in the symbolic framework can be used to compare procedures and also compare research studies results based on the definitions in the symbolic framework. The results of the human subject experiment help in understanding the effect of the independently controlled factors on system performance