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A comparison of location and token-based interaction techniques for point-of-care access to medical information

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Abstract

This paper compares the usability of some location and token-based interaction techniques for systems that provide point-of-care access to medical information. The investigation is based around a scenario from clinical work—administration of medicine to patients. Four interaction techniques that match the scenario are identified. We demonstrate how these techniques can be concretized through functional prototypes. The prototypes were tested with health workers in a full-scale model of a section of a hospital ward. The usability issues emerging from the tests were related to required user attention, predictability of system behavior, and integration with the work situation. We found that the usability of the interaction techniques to a large degree depended on specific physical and social conditions of the use situation. This result is an incentive to consider a broad set of sensor-based interaction techniques and devices for such systems, and to select the best few of these for implementation.

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Notes

  1. This idea was probably introduced to Spielberg by Hiroshi Ishii’s MIT Medialab colleague John Underkoffler who worked as science advisor on the movie.

  2. Cordis RadioEye™, Radionor Communications (http://www.radionor.no/).

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Telenor R&I. All testing took place at the usability laboratory at The Norwegian EHR Research Center (http://www.nsep.no) in Trondheim, Norway. Thanks to Reidar Martin Svendsen for technical assistance during testing, and to Alan Munro and Odd-Wiking Rahlff for helpful comments.

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  1. Department of Computer and Information Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Sem Sælandsvei 7-9, 7491, Trondheim, Norway

    Yngve Dahl & Dag Svanæs

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  1. Yngve Dahl
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  2. Dag Svanæs
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Correspondence to Yngve Dahl.

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Dahl, Y., Svanæs, D. A comparison of location and token-based interaction techniques for point-of-care access to medical information. Pers Ubiquit Comput 12, 459–478 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-007-0141-8

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