Design Implications from the Preliminary Results of a Telemedicine Patient-Technology Interaction Study

Abstract

The global demographic shift of the proportion of ageing population is projected to be more than double in the next four decades. Consequently, healthcare systems will face strong demands from the increase in patients because the ageing population is prone to chronic diseases. A possible solution for some chronic diseases is to provide healthcare through in-home monitoring technology. However, current design considerations have a greater focus on how to deliver healthcare through these technologies than how the patients' experience the technologies. Hence, these technologies are often a digital version of the existing healthcare delivery system. This paper presents preliminary findings of a patient-technology study from the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) perspective. A HCI empirical evaluation was conducted of patients' use of technology in a telemedicine clinical trial of type 2 diabetes. This paper describes the Clinical User-Experience Evaluation (CUE) method that was designed for this trial to explore medical monitoring in the digital age. Preliminary findings about design of future patient-centric in-home monitoring technology for type 2 diabetes are presented.