Healthcare Applications for Clinicians - E-Healthcare Systems and Wireless Communications - page 55

PCs. Since the study did not observe clinical
tasks to occur in static settings (Andersen, P., et
al. 2009), the laptops appeared to be the perfect
choice. What pleased the nurses most was the
ability to accompany the laptops where needed.
(Andersen, P., et al. 2009) Strangely enough, the
laptops with larger screens were easier to move
around as compared to those with smaller screens.
(Andersen, P., et al. 2009) This is because those
with smaller screens offered more table space,
which at times would get occupied by clinical
substances, causing the view of the laptop screens
to be partially concealed. (Andersen, P., et al.
2009) Laptops equipped with styli seemed to be
extremely suitable for pharmacists. (Andersen,
P., et al. 2009) This was so because pharmacists
could easily write their observations and other
information in their own handwriting (Andersen,
P., et al. 2009) using the stylus. When needed, the
tablet PC would convert the handwritten text into
digital text. (Andersen, P., et al. 2009) Further, the
pharmacists felt at ease while carrying the tablet
PCs for their rounds. (Andersen, P., et al. 2009) On
the other hand, doctors who were relatively station-
ary had a preference for standard PCs. (Andersen,
P., et al. 2009) These observations prove that the
actual design of the device, whether physical or
graphical, has a considerable effect for clinicians
in regard to usage of that device. (Andersen, P.,
et al. 2009) It is a constant challenge to find a
design which perfectly suits the arrangements and
obligations of a particular environment. The key
is to consider all possibilities, conduct interviews,
and to carry out other evaluations along with the
help of professionals.

of sickness may not prefer answering questions
which are irrelevant to the illness for which he/she
has visited the clinic, as an obligation. (Ahmad,
F. et al., 2010) A system which requires patients
to fill a computerized form before meeting the
assigned doctor may also seem unnecessary from
a patient's point of view. (Ahmad, F. et al., 2010)
This application would then notify the patient of
any indicators of a particular illness, and the risks
associated with it. (Ahmad, F. et al., 2010) The
system would generate a list of suggestions, risks,
and comments of the possible symptoms the patient
might be undergoing. On one hand patients would
be reluctant in regard to discussing an issue which
they had not made an appointment for, while on
the other hand, the physician would have to man-
age patient consultation time effectively. (Ahmad,
F. et al., 2010) This is because discussing added
computer-generated comments may be more time
consuming. Further, allocating an equal amount
of time for every consultation would be difficult
to manage. (Ahmad, F. et al., 2010)

Biased Application Designs

Applications such as search engines which are
built specific to clinicians' needs may trigger
clinicians to search for queries in a way that may
lead to biased search results, leading to biased
decision making. Some of the most commonly
designed search engines include resource-based
search engines, referring to a search engine which
gives the user the authority to select a resource
prior to searching for a query, so as to make the
search relevant purely for the selected resource.
Interestingly enough, studies showed that clini-
cians using resource-based search engines tend to
search for the same query for various resources,
instead of searching for different queries for the
same resource. (Lau, A.YS. et al., 2010) In the
midst of performing searches using a resource-
based search engine, clinicians felt the need to
compare the search results of the same query
with those of different resources. (Lau, A.YS. et

Physicians' Approach to
Manage Patient Hesitation

With respect to an application requiring direct pa-
tient interaction with the system, it might be awk-
ward for the patients to respond to each query as a
requirement of the system. For instance, a patient
that visits the clinical premise with a certain form