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regarding pain location, intensity, etc. and further analyze it. Similarly, the second
application has been developed as a web application with the exact capabilities as the
standalone version, and which the clinician could access from any location that Inter-
net access is offered.
3.4 Summary
Concluding this very important part of this work, so far we have discussed the
proposed architecture of the system to be developed, as well as we have seen the
implemented solution in the form of screenshots that demonstrate the functionalities
identified in the user requirements collected by the clinicians and the patients alike. In
the following section, we will proceed to the prototype's evaluation, where all these
functionalities will be evaluated against a number of patients and clinicians.
4 Prototype Evaluation
In this section the prototypes will be evaluated against their potential users i.e. pa-
tients and clinicians alike, in order to help us achieve our goal of examining the sys-
tem's functionality, and obtaining information on its usefulness, in order to better
understand the potential and problems in its use. The purpose of this initial evaluation
of the prototype was twofold: first, to gain feedback from the clinicians involved in
developing the requirements, and second, to gain an understanding of how usable the
interface was by potential patients.
4.1 Clinical Evaluation
Four clinicians were asked to review the prototype. One was a back-pain specialist
from a London hospital; another was a palliative care specialist from a different Lon-
don hospital, with the prototype also being evaluated by two physiotherapists. This
review was to ascertain whether this approach to pain visualization could be used in
practice, by professionals with considerable experience in the use of existing 2-D pain
drawings. In general, all clinicians surveyed approved of the visual appearance of the
system, and suggested that the prototype would be usable in a clinical environment.
They provided a number of interesting observations on limitations and improvements
that could be made.
The back pain specialist noted that the 3-D interface covered almost all aspects of
existing pain drawings. He was impressed by the level of detail and navigation con-
trol. However, he did note that users with disabilities might find it difficult to interact
with the PDA. While he was “excited” by the possibility of patients collecting their
own data, especially at set times of the day (and thus, being able to remotely monitor
the progression and type of pain, vis-a-vis the prescribed medication
/
treatment), he
did highlight that 1) users should be given appropriate training and 2) appropriate
personnel and facilities should be made available to interpret this wealth of data, oth-
erwise it would ultimately be a futile exercise.
These concerns were also echoed by the palliative-care clinician, who was, how-
ever, impressed by the opportunity that the application gave patients to become stake-
holders in managing their pain. Moreover, he was also of the opinion that even though
the tool did not provide a diagnosis as such, it could have important and benefic psy-
chological effects on patients eager to record their pain diaries.
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