Health Kiosks Research Articles

The Role of Health Kiosks in 2009: Literature and Informant Review

Kiosks can provide patients with access to health systems in public locations, but with increasing home Internet access their usefulness is questioned. A literature and informant review identified kiosks used for taking medical histories, health promotion, self assessment, consumer feedback, patient registration, patient access to records, and remote consultations. Sited correctly with good interfaces, kiosks can be used by all demographics but many ‘projects’ have failed to become routine practice. A role remains for: (a) integrated kiosks as part of patient ‘flow’, (b) opportunistic kiosks to catch people’s attention. Both require clear ‘ownership’ to succeed.

CME test answer sheet and evaluation form for pre-diabetes

To describe the acceptability of an interactive computer kiosk that provides environmental health education to low-income Latina prenatal patients.A mixed-methods approach was used to assess the acceptability of the Prenatal Environmental Health Kiosk pregnant Latina women in Salinas, CA (n = 152). The kiosk is a low literacy, interactive touch-screen computer program with an audio component and includes graphics and an interactive game.The majority had never used a kiosk before. Over 90% of women reported that they learned something new while using the kiosk. Prior to using the kiosk, 22% of women reported their preference of receiving health education from a kiosk over a pamphlet or video compared with 57% after using the kiosk (p < 0.01). Qualitative data revealed: (1) benefit of exposure to computer use; (2) reinforcing strategy of health education; and (3) popularity of the interactive game.The Prenatal Environmental Health Kiosk is an innovative patient health education modality that was shown to be acceptable among a population of low-income Latino pregnant women in a prenatal care clinic.This pilot study demonstrated that a health education kiosk was an acceptable strategy for providing Latina prenatal patients with information on pertinent environmental exposures.

An evaluation of the use of NHS touch-screen health kiosks: a national study

An evaluation of the use of NHS touch-screen health kiosks: a national study

The Development of an Alzheimer's Disease Channel for the Michigan Interactive Health Kiosk Project

The overall objective of this article is to describe the development and implementation of an Alzheimer's disease (AD) module for the Michigan Interactive Health Kiosk Project. This project provides access to health information via 100 kiosks located in public places throughout the state (e.g., churches, senior centers, schools, shopping malls, grocery stores, hospitals) using interactive multimedia software. Because the kiosk screen was designed to resemble a television set, program modules are referred to as "channels." The AD channel is designed to increase knowledge and awareness of the disease among the general public. After an overview of the overall project, the steps involved in developing the AD channel and strategies designed to monitor its use are described, including touch-screen usage data and an on-line user survey. Finally, marketing and promotion of the channel and the implications of this initiative for disseminating information about AD are discussed.

Three years of digital consumer health information: a longitudinal study of the touch screen health kiosk

Touch screen kiosks have become a popular way of delivering health information and much of the associated user activity is automatically and routinely recorded in electronic log files. These are a significant source of understanding consumer information seeking behaviour. However, there has been no evaluation in the literature of the long-term use of kiosks. This paper seeks to fill the gap in our knowledge and examines the use of a sample of 20 kiosks over three and half years. Identifies four patterns of use over time, a declining pattern, a stable pattern an increasing pattern and a no trend pattern and discusses the implications of these patterns. For 75% of the patterns reported there is an initial strong take up in use, often more than a doubling in use, in the first four to five months after a kiosk is installed this is followed by a just as rapid decline in use. The research found differences use between age groups with patients aged 15 and above being more likely to be responsible for the initial strong surge in use. The research reported here forms part of a Department of Health (DoH) funded study which is evaluating the use and impact of more than fifty heath kiosks located in all kinds of locations throughout the United Kingdom.

An evaluation of the use of NHS touch‐screen health kiosks: a national study

Provides the first exploratory analysis of the use of NHS touch‐screen information kiosks located throughout the UK. It examines, through a one month snapshot of the transactional logs of the kiosks, their use and makes comparisons between the types of organisation in which the kiosks are housed. Details of over 120 kiosks and nearly 47,000 user sessions and 310,000 page views were used for the comparison. The kiosks are proving popular, although some use appears to be of a cursory and seemingly unproductive kind. Surprisingly significant differences between kiosk locations were found. This early research reported here is part of an ongoing study of how users obtain health information by interacting with different digital platforms: kiosks, the Internet, and digital television. Comparisons are made between the results of this study and a similar study conducted by the authors on commercial health kiosks, those of InTouch With Health.

Age and gender user differences of a touch-screen kiosk: a study of kiosk transaction log files

More and more health information is provided to the consumer in a digital form but research on who actually accesses and uses this information is unclear. This research identifies age and gender user differences of a touch-screen health kiosk. In a departure from previous research, extensive use is made of electronically recorded user transaction files. In all 1378 user sessions covering 17 039 page views were analysed for this study. This research forms part of a research project funded by the Department of Health. Men accounted for about 53% of use but this hides an important gender difference: additionally women under 15 are significant under-users of such facilities. Qualitative research is needed to clarify the relationship. Further, it was found that those aged over 75 were not making use of kiosk content pages when compared to other age groups.

Establishing metrics for the evaluation of touch screen kiosks

Public touch screen information systems or kiosks have become a popular way of delivering consumer information and much of the user activity is automatically recorded in electronic log files. Fortunately for the information professional, log files are a significant source for understanding the information seeking behaviour of consumers., Surprisingly, however, there has been no discussion in the literature on what metrics are available for their evaluation. This paper seeks to address this problem and examines the metrics that can be generated from touch screen kiosk logs. The research reported here forms part of a Department of Health funded study, which is evaluating the use and impact of 70 health kiosks located in medical and other locations throughout the UK [1]. The way that kiosks function and the contents of their log files are described. Metrics are discussed in the context of the data generated from a touch screen health kiosk in Wakefield. Aggregate use, user numbers and descriptive statistics generated on age, gender and pages viewed are examined. An examination of the distribution of time-based variables, such as session time, found them to be highly skewed; in consequence, robust estimates were generated and compared. A metric for depth of session was developed by grouping users according to their patterns of use and a method for assessing kiosk ‘utilisation’ is proposed.

Determinants of Health Kiosk Use and Usefulness: Case Study of a Kiosk Which Serves a Multi-Cultural Population

329 patients in a multi-cultural surgery in Nottinghamshire, England used a touch-screen health information kiosk in the practice and then filled in an online questionnaire after they had searched the system. This questionnaire sought background information on the patient's age, gender, country of birth and employment status as well as data on the use and usefulness of the kiosk. Ease of kiosk system use was found to be significant in determining both use and satisfaction variables. Older users and those not born in the UK were less likely to find the system easy or very easy to use. Employment status was also found to impact on kiosk use; both UK born and non-UK born skilled workers were found to use the kiosk more as compared to other groups. These findings help identify user populations who are good targets for information kiosks as well as the most effective ways to provide consumer health information via kiosk.

Digital health information: case study the information kiosk

The published literature on consumer health kiosks is assessed to determine the impact of this relatively ‘low‐tech’ technology and to provide a context and stepping‐stone for a Department of Health (DoH) funded study, which is evaluating the impact of more than 70 health kiosks located in all kinds of locations throughout the United kingdom. The existing literature indicates that kiosks are benefiting health information provision in some important ways. Data from some early pilot work on the DoH project illustrates the kinds of analyses that can be conducted and appears to confirm the popularity of the kiosks with the general public.