A Comprehensive Human Factors Analysis of Wearable Computers Supporting a Hospital Ward Round

Abstract:
This paper focuses on the social computing and usability issues connected to the use of a wearable computer as support of the clinical ward round. An evaluation of a prototype system was performed with a group of doctors and nurses, who physically tried out the system in a simulated ward round scenario and were interviewed about their experiences. Generally, the doctors and nurses felt such system would be helpful in diminishing paper work and enhance collaboration. The most critical component of the prototype system was the navigation in electronic patient documents using gesture interaction. The doctors found the gestures difficult to learn and were worried the patient contact would suffer as a result of too much attention being needed by the gestures.