CLINICAL EVIDENCE AT THE POINT OF CARE IN ACUTE MEDICINE:A HANDHELD USABILITY CASE STUDY

摘要

The need to design medical information device interfaces for clinical use has been wellrndocumented in medical journals. In this study we apply well known usability techniques suchrnas user requirement elicitation and prototype design and evaluation to design an evidencebasedrnmedical information retrieval system intended for a wireless environment. Our immediate goalrnis to make the daily practice of evidencebased medicine (EBM) for frontline clinicians easierrnby providing relevant, timely information at the point of care (using a wireless PDA device),rndelivered in a format that is usable and liked by the target group. Our objective is to use thisrnevidence-based information delivery tool as an educational device and to encourage cliniciansrnto consult, as appropriate, the latest best evidence available to support their clinical decision inrnhopes of improving clinical outcomes. The development of a handheld user interface forrnclinicians is described, along with results obtained from usability testing with a sample set ofrnscenarios.