User-centered Development Approach Research Articles

SIGEPS: A System for Managing the Health Internship Program.

The healthcare sector's demand for a skilled workforce necessitates effective management of internship and residency programs. This study introduces the System for Managing the Health Internship Program (SIGEPS), aimed at addressing internship and residency management challenges in Joinville's municipal health network. The method of this study focused on developing a computational solution with applied and exploratory objectives. The research adopted a User-Centered Development approach, involving seven stages from scope determination to system implementation. Key stages included selecting Google's free technological tools, developing forms for information input, integrating these into a Google Sheets spreadsheet, and creating a website for schedule display. The primary result was the successful development of SIGEPS, which automated the process from initial requests to scheduling and analysis of healthcare institutions and displayed schedules online. The system offers several advantages over previous models, such as concurrent scheduling by multiple employees, process automation, enhanced information transparency, and improved efficiency with significant time savings. Future enhancements include integrating decision support systems and enabling data analysis reports through dashboards to further reduce scheduling efforts and enhance professional efficiency. This study demonstrates the feasibility of developing and implementing a free computational solution using the Google platform for managing internships and residencies in the healthcare sector.

Thea: empowering the therapeutic alliance of children with ASD by multimedia interaction

The Therapeutic Alliance (TA) between patient and health provider (therapist or clinician) is one of the most relevant factors for the success of a therapy. In the case of people suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), the alliance is extended to all the people involved in their care (i.e., teachers, therapists, clinicians, relatives). In this paper, we propose a multimedia application named Thea for empowering the TA of children with ASD by improving the communication among the TA members, sharing guidelines, multimedia contents, and strategies to comply with challenging behaviors and progress with particular attention towards end-users who are occasional smart-users. A detailed process for empowering the TA members by enhancing the informed interaction among all of them is proposed and implemented. A vocal assistant also supports patients/caregivers and therapists in documenting their activity with the person with ASD by recording videos in a free-hand modality. After a contextual analysis based on Thematic Analysis Template, Thea has been implemented using a user-centered development approach. We performed three iterations involving the end-users. A user study is performed at the third iteration. Results of the user study revealed a positive attitude towards the application. In particular, the perception of empowerment of participants increased after the tool had been used. We also highlighted the guidelines and tools that may be adopted for empowering different kinds of patients. The first results seem to suggest that the use of Thea may increase the belief of the caregivers of a person with ASD to be able to better take care of her, in a more controlled and informed way.

A Smartphone-Based Self-management Intervention for Bipolar Disorder (LiveWell): User-Centered Development Approach.

BackgroundBipolar disorder is a serious mental illness that results in significant morbidity and mortality. Pharmacotherapy is the primary treatment for bipolar disorder; however, adjunctive psychotherapy can help individuals use self-management strategies to improve outcomes. Yet access to this therapy is limited. Smartphones and other technologies have the potential to increase access to therapeutic strategies that enhance self-management while simultaneously providing real-time user feedback and provider alerts to augment care.ObjectiveThis paper describes the user-centered development of LiveWell, a smartphone-based self-management intervention for bipolar disorder, to contribute to and support the ongoing improvement and dissemination of technology-based mental health interventions.MethodsIndividuals with bipolar disorder first participated in a field trial of a simple smartphone app for self-monitoring of behavioral targets. To develop a complete technology-based intervention for bipolar disorder, this field trial was followed by design sessions, usability testing, and a pilot study of a smartphone-based self-management intervention for bipolar disorder. Throughout all phases of development, intervention revisions were made based on user feedback.ResultsThe core of the LiveWell intervention consists of a daily self-monitoring tool, the Daily Check-in. This self-monitoring tool underwent multiple revisions during the user-centered development process. Daily Check-in mood and thought rating scales were collapsed into a single wellness rating scale to accommodate user development of personalized scale anchors. These anchors are meant to assist users in identifying early warning signs and symptoms of impending episodes to take action based on personalized plans. When users identified personal anchors for the wellness scale, the anchors most commonly reflected behavioral signs and symptoms (40%), followed by cognitive (25%), mood (15%), physical (10%), and motivational (7%) signs and symptoms. Changes to the Daily Check-in were also made to help users distinguish between getting adequate sleep and keeping a regular routine. At the end of the pilot study, users reported that the Daily Check-in made them more aware of early warning signs and symptoms and how much they were sleeping. Users also reported that they liked personalizing their anchors and plans and felt this process was useful. Users experienced some difficulties with developing, tracking, and achieving target goals. Users also did not consistently follow up with app recommendations to contact providers when Daily Check-in data suggested they needed additional assistance. As a result, the human support roles for the technology were expanded beyond app use support to include support for self-management and clinical care communication. The development of these human support roles was aided by feedback on the technology's usability from the users and the coaches who provided the human support.ConclusionsUser input guided the development of intervention content, technology, and coaching support for LiveWell. Users valued the provision of monitoring tools and the ability to personalize plans for staying well, supporting the role of monitoring and personalization as important features of digital mental health technologies. Users also valued human support of the technology in the form of a coach, and user difficulties with aspects of self-management and care-provider communication led to an expansion of the coach's support roles. Obtaining feedback from both users and coaches played an important role in the development of both the LiveWell technology and human support. Attention to all stakeholders involved in the use of mental health technologies is essential for optimizing intervention development.

User Needs in the Development of a Health App Ecosystem for Self-Management of Cystic Fibrosis: User-Centered Development Approach.

BackgroundDigital self-management in cystic fibrosis (CF) is foreseen as a means toward better understanding of the disease and its treatment and better adherence to the treatment. Mobile apps hold the potential to provide access to information, motivate, and strengthen compliance. However, to deliver high-quality apps, the development should be based on thorough knowledge about user needs. Empirical research on the user-centered development of mobile apps for health care is, however, still limited.ObjectiveThe aim of this research is to develop and evaluate an app ecosystem for self-management in CF. It targets not only those directly affected by CF but also parents and health care professionals involved in the treatment. This paper covers the first step of the design process that aims to analyze the context and the user requirements. The primary research question is as follows: what digital support has the potential to usefully support persons with CF and their caregivers in the CF care? To answer this question, we address two preliminary questions: what important factors in everyday life affect the care of persons with CF? and how is the CF care delivered today and what are the limitations of CF care services?MethodsThe overall research adopts a user-centered design approach in which future users are involved in the development process from the very beginning to ensure that the apps developed best suit the potential users. The research presented in the paper follows an interpretative case study research strategy seeking to understand the concerns and needs of persons with CF and their caregivers. Data were collected through semistructured qualitative interviews involving 74 participants in seven European countries and from internet forums.ResultsThe results of the analysis phase show a strong need for individuality of the digital support, as well as for its adaptability to different contexts. The paper presents the concerns and needs of the participants in the study and extracts a set of relevant features for a self-management app ecosystem. Education, enzyme dosage calculation, nutrition management, treatment organization, health diary, treatment follow-up, practical guidelines for treatment, communication with doctors, and communication with peers are foreseen as useful features.ConclusionsThe results indicate the readiness for self-management in the CF care even in countries that provide well-functioning health care services for CF care. The large diversity of user requirements identified reflects the crucial role user integration plays in developing apps for a chronic condition such as CF. The need for personalization stemming from the individuality of the patients and the need for communication with health care professionals support the idea of an app ecosystem for the self-management of CF.

Agile Project Management: A Case Study of a Virtual Research Environment Development Project

In this paper we use a case study of a project to create a Web 2.0-based, Virtual Research Environment (VRE) for researchers to share digital resources in order to reflect on the principles and practices for embedding eResearch applications within user communities. In particular, we focus on the software development methodologies and project management techniques adopted by the project team in order to ensure that the project remained responsive to changing user requirements without compromising their capacity to keep the project `on track', i.e. meeting the goals declared in the project proposal within budget and on time. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, we describe how the project team, whose members are distributed across multiple sites (and often mobile), exploit a repertoire of coordination mechanisms, communication modes and tools, artefacts and structuring devices as they seek to establish the orderly running of the project while following an agile, user-centred development approach.

CareVis: Integrated visualization of computerized protocols and temporal patient data

Currently, visualization support for patient data analysis is mostly limited to the representation of directly measured data. Contextual information on performed treatment steps is an important source to find reasons and explanations for certain phenomena in the measured patient data, but is mostly spared out in the analysis process. This work aims to fill this gap via integrating classical data visualization and visualization of treatment information. We considered temporal as well as logical data aspects and applied a user-centered development approach that was guided by user input gathered via a user study, design reviews, and prototype evaluations. Furthermore, we investigated the novel PlanningLine glyph, that is used to represent plans in the temporal domain, via a comparative empirical user study. Our interactive visualization approach CareVis provides multiple simultaneous views to cover different aspects of the complex underlying data structure of treatment plans and patient data. The tightly coupled views use visualization methods well-known to domain experts and are designed to facilitate users' tasks. The views are based on the concepts of clinical algorithm maps and LifeLines which have been extended in order to cope with the powerful and expressive plan representation language Asbru. Initial feedback of physicians was encouraging and is accompanied by empirical evidence which verifies that PlanningLines are well suited to manage temporal uncertainty. The interactive integration of different visualization methods forms a novel way of combining, relating, and analyzing different kinds of medical data and information that otherwise would be separated.