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Y. Dahl
'You Have a Message Here': Enhancing Interpersonal Communication in a Hospital Ward with Location-based Virtual Notes
Keywords: Clinical communication, context-awareness, Mobile computing, point-of-care systems
OBJECTIVES: This paper aims to explore how computerized interpersonal information can be mediated through the physical environment of hospital wards. Specifically, it focuses on a communication service (locationbased virtual notes) that allows hospital workers to leave short digital messages at relevant physical locations (e.g. by a patient bed), so that intended colleagues can pick them up later when entering such a location. In a work setting where personnel move between various locations mainly as a result of work priority, improving timeliness of information and reducing the number of work interruptions is essential. Our objective is to provide a set of user-motivated design guidelines that address important usability aspects of the proposed communication service. METHODS: To get end user feedback, a prototype was built and tested in simulated scenarios with real hospital workers. The material gathered from the usability testing and following interviews was reviewed to identify critical usability issues. RESULTS: We identified a number of relevant usability issues concerning the applied design metaphor, posting of digital messages, role-based contact, and user control. These issues formed the basis for a set of preliminary design principles. CONCLUSIONS: We view the preliminary usability guidelines as an incentive for more extensive research. Based on feedback from the test participants, we conclude that the location-based virtual notes have promising potential to improve timeliness of ad hoc information exchange between hospital workers.
Methods of Information in Medicine, Schattauer
Print ISSN: 0026-1270
Volume: 45, 01/2006
Pages: 602 - 609