Human Factors Considerations in Designing Home-Based Video Telemedicine Systems for the Geriatric Population

Telemedicine is the process of providing healthcare services when large distances separate the patient and the doctor, with the use of communication technology. Telemedicine serves as a substitute to in-person hospital visits and in large, reduces the need to travel and wait in line to visit the doctor. It is predicted to help the geriatric population in managing their healthcare requirements. In order for telemedicine to effectively help the older population, it is essential to understand their needs and issues in telemedicine systems. A study with 40 participants was conducted to understand the usability issues of telemedicine systems with the geriatric population. Four telemedicine video platforms 1) Doxy.me, 2) Polycom, 3) Vidyo and 4) VSee, were used to understand these issues using a between-subject experimental design. Participants completed a demographic survey, followed by a telemedicine session. This was followed by a retrospective think-aloud discussion session to understand their issues and needs concluding with a post-test survey. This survey included general questions about using the system followed by NASA-TLX workload measure and IBM-Computer System Usability Questionnaire (IBM-CSUQ). Some of the issues identified included lengthy email invitation with multiple web links, application download, registration and issues relating to icons used. A Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) is a method for understanding the cognitive or mental demands involved in performing a task. A Cognitive Task Analysis was conducted for each platform to help identify potential cognitive issues when interacting with telemedicine systems. These solutions include providing a single necessary link in the email, eliminating the necessity to download and register, and, contrast, placement and appropriate labels for icons. As suggested by the participants, detailed step-wise instructions on navigating through a session will also be provided. Future work in this area would be to develop such a system, which theoretically, will increase the efficiency in using telemedicine systems

Forming Impressions on Computer-Mediated Healthcare Peer-Support Systems for Informal Caregivers

The rapid evolution of Information technology (IT) has seen its adoption during many aspects of our lives, including healthcare. Healthcare IT provides the public with access to governmental records, electronic health records, healthcare websites, internet-based medical consultation, and more recently, online peer-support portals. These peer-support portals, which are directed not only towards patients but also caregivers, have been found to be a source of informational and emotional support. In addition, for caregivers who cannot leave their loved ones to access in-person support groups, these online support portals are an important substitute. In these online peer-support portals, informal caregivers interact with one another, providing emotional and personal support, leading to a sense of camaraderie and thereby a social relationship. The contributions on these portals are voluntary, with some members contributing more often than others. The first study in this dissertation focuses on understanding the patterns of interaction between these top contributors, referred to here as peer patrons, and other informal caregivers in terms of the information they provide, and the unique characteristics of the top contributors based on these interactions. Several unique interaction patterns related to peer patrons were found along with information about how peer patrons contribute towards the coping mechanism of informal caregivers. Interface design implications based on these outcomes were discussed. With informal caregivers exchanging not only information and emotional content on online peer-support portals but also forming social relations, it is important to understand how these users form impressions of others based on the information they access. The possible consequences of following healthcare and medical advice posted on these portals further emphasize the need to understand how users form impressions of one another on these portals. The second study in this dissertation focuses on impression formation using profiles based on those of the peer patrons who were the focus of the previous study. This exploratory study brought to light the prominence of the comment content and the profile picture in forming impressions on these portals, thereby supporting literature regarding context effects on impression formation. The final chapter is an intervention-based study investigating factors leading to positive impression formation on online healthcare peer-support portals. It supported the findings from the previous study regarding the importance of comment and profile picture and suggested the use of other peer ratings to solidify impressions formed using the former two cues. Additionally, the contribution of this dissertation to the literature and the improvement of online healthcare peer-support portals is discussed

An Investigation of Information Sought by Caregivers of Alzheimer’s Patients on Online Peer-Support Groups

Alzheimer’s caregivers seek social support through online communities to deal with their issues. The research team conducted a content analysis of ALZConnected.org to investigate the characteristics of information searched by caregivers and responses received. Two-hundred fifty posts and related responses were randomly selected and analyzed using a classification tool derived from the analysis of 500 posts and related responses spanning a yearlong period. The Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIW C) generated an average tone rating of 25.94 for the posts and 52.69 for the responses. The findings highlighted the caregiver’s need for emotional support (59.6%), and confusion about Alzheimer’s symptoms (12%). Most responses suggested informational resources (40.16%) and advised to seek professional assistance (21.31%). One of the key needs identified to inform future design of an Alzheimer’s Caregiver Forum was a design sensitive to the capabilities of its elder user audience

An empirical study investigating the user acceptance of a virtual conversational agent interface for family health history collection among the geriatric population

Critical for the early diagnosis of genetic disorders, a Family Health History (FHx) can be collected in several ways including electronic FHx tools, which aid easy editing and sharing by linking with other information management portals. The user acceptance of such systems is critical, especially among older adults experiencing motor and cognitive issues. This study investigated two types of FHx interfaces, standard and Virtual Conversational Agent (VCA), using 30 young (between 18 and 30) and 24 older participants (over 60). Workload, usability and performance data were collected. Even though participants required less time to complete three of five tasks on the standard interface, the VCA interface performed better in terms of subjective workload and usability. Additionally, 67% of the older adults preferred the VCA interface since it provided context-based guidance during the data collection process. The results from this study have implications for the use of virtual assistants in FHx and other areas of data collection