Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Jenia Pevzner.
We developed a training protocol for elderly participants of a home telemedicine study, grounded in prior usability research. The training aimed to reduce barriers in developing system mastery. Our findings are indicative of both the promises and challenges involved in bridging the digital divide. Sixteen participants of a diabetes study were trained to use the computer applications.
Telemedicine has the potential to transcend geographic and socio-cultural barriers to the delivery of high quality health care to the medically underserved populations. However, there are significant cognitive and usability barriers. This paper presents a multifaceted cognitive evaluation of the IDEATel diabetes education and telemedicine program. The evaluation included a cognitive walkthrough analysis to characterize task complexity and identify potential problems as well as field usability testing in patients' homes. The study revealed dimensions of the interface that impeded optimal access to system resources. In addition, we found significant obstacles corresponding to perceptual-motoric skills, mental models of the system, and health literacy. The objective of this work is to contribute to a design framework so that participants with a wide range of skills can better manage their chronic illnesses.
OBJECTIVE: This paper presents an approach to usability evaluation of computer-based health care systems designed for patient use in their homes. Although such devices are becoming more prevalent, there is very little known about their usability. DESIGN: The theoretical foundations for the methods are discussed. The approach incorporates a cognitive walkthrough usability evaluation and new methods for usability testing that can be conducted in patient's homes. The method was applied to the IDEATel intervention, a multi-institution randomized controlled trial of the feasibility, acceptability, and clinical utility of a home-based telemedicine system for diabetic Medicare population. The usability study was designed to assess barriers to optimal use of the system. The focus was both on dimensions of the interface and on dimensions of patient skills and competency. The usability field research involved testing 25 patients in their homes using the system. The analysis included a range of video-analytic methods of varying levels of granularity. RESULTS: The usability evaluation revealed aspects of the interface that were sub-optimal and impeded the performance of certain tasks. It also found a range of patient-related factors such as numeracy and psychomotor skills that constituted barriers to productive use. CONCLUSIONS: A multifaceted usability approach provided important insight regarding use of technology by an elderly chronic-care patient population and more generally, for understanding how home health initiatives can more effectively use such technology.