Biomedical subjects

Carl Gutwin

Publications and source records attributed to Carl Gutwin.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Men are more accurate than women in aiming at targets in both near space and extrapersonal space.

Men excel at motor tasks requiring aiming accuracy whereas women excel at different tasks requiring fine motor skill. However, these tasks are confounded with proximity to the body, as fine motor tasks are performed proximally and aiming tasks are directed at distal targets. As such, it is not known whether the male advantage on tasks requiring aiming accuracy is because men have better aim or is better in the proximal domain in which the task is usually presented. 18 men (M age = 20.6 yr., SD = 3.0) and 20 women (M age = 18.7 yr., SD = 0.9) performed 2 tasks of extrapersonal aiming accuracy (>2 m away), 2 tasks of aiming accuracy performed in near space (< 1 m from them), and a task of fine motor skill. Men outperformed women on both the extrapersonal aiming tasks, and women outperformed men on the task of fine motor skill. However, a male advantage was observed for one of the aiming tasks performed in near space, suggesting that the male advantage for aiming accuracy does not result from proximity.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

A collaborative document repository for home care teams.

Home care workers are mobile, work out of different locations, and have a high level of uncertainty in their schedules. This makes communication and information sharing difficult, and workers are often unable to account for others' activities when planning their own treatments. To address this issue, we developed and evaluated a clinical information system for home care that supports current paperwork practices and stores documents in a central repository that is accessible by all workers that treat a patient.

Cooperative Behavior↗

PubMed2003

Female advantage for spatial location memory in both static and dynamic environments.

A female advantage has previously been found for spatial location tests of object memory. Previous studies have used static, 2-D tasks to test this advantage. This study used a computerized adaptation of the game Concentration to test object location memory in both a static and dynamic array of 24 pairs of line drawings. The dynamic version of this task was used to better reflect the dynamic real world in which we usually use object location memory. Consistent with previous research, we observed a female advantage. This advantage was found to a similar extent in both the static and dynamic versions of the task. The female advantage for object location memory is a concrete advantage in spatial cognition that females show on the Concentration Task, regardless of the nature of the presentation environment.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Awareness-based scheduling in a home care clinical information system.

In home care, workers from different disciplines treat patients in their homes. However, workers who treat a shared patient are mobile and rarely see each other face-to-face, so it is difficult for them to maintain awareness of others' activities. In this paper, we discuss one aspect of these information limitations by considering how limited awareness of others' schedules influences work patterns in home care. We identify and discuss several problems that arise from incomplete information about others' schedules. We examine design approaches for supporting mutual awareness of others' schedules by presenting Mohoc, a point-of-care clinical information system for workers in Saskatoon District Health, and the results of a 2(1/2)-month field trial we carried out with the system.

Home Care Services↗

PubMed2002

Supporting collaboration in multidisciplinary home care teams.

Collaboration is an important part of healthcare delivery. However, in home care, collaboration is difficult due to the mobility and schedule variability of the workers. In this paper, we investigate the difficulties inherent in home care collaboration. We present the results of a study carried out with home care clinicians in Saskatoon District Health, and identify five areas of collaboration that are difficult for home care workers: scheduling, information dissemination, information retrieval, short-term treatment coordination, and long-term treatment planning. We present recommendations for incorporating support for each of these areas into point-of-care clinical information systems that provide access to shared patient records. Finally, we discuss general design approaches for incorporating this type of support, including the need for workers to maintain awareness of the activities of others, and the need to integrate communication with the presentation of the health record.

Communication↗