Empirical Evaluation of a Mobile Application for Assisting Physicians in Creating Medical Notes

摘要

Mobile devices are becoming pervasive in medical informatics. A common practice among physicians is to take notes during ward rounds, which helps them write the formal medical note. MedNote is a mobile application designed to support this practice. We conducted an experimental evaluation, where seven medical interns watched a video projection of three clinical cases, using different devices (PDA, Tablet PC, Paper) to take notes. Participants were required to elaborate a formal medical note with the help of these personal notes. We measured the time required to complete the tasks as well as their perception of comfort with each device. Using the application proved to be faster in elaborating the formal note when compared to paper, and all users agreed that the structure of fields in MedNote was very useful as a guideline. In contrast, we found that entering data in MedNote was somewhat difficult and slow compared to using paper.