Field Testing, Evaluation and Validation of a Web-Based MedWatch Decision Support System (MWDSS): An Empirical Study of the Application of Mobile Tracking of Epidemiological Disease Trends and Patient Movements in a Military Scenario

The MedWatch decision support system (MWDSS) is a promising mobile medical informatics technology approaching maturity. MWDSS was originally commissioned as a Web-based tool for medical planners to facilitate resource management by medical facilities and to track disease trends and patient movement. Given the present military climate, automated medical surveillance capabilities are valuable tools for medical support of the armed forces. MWDSS promises to enhance medical support for the military. The development of MWDSS is consistent with the Department of Defense (DoD) directives, which identified medical surveillance as important for maintaining force readiness. This report documents the results of a subject matter expert (SME) survey conducted to evaluate the MWDSS software. Thirty nine SMEs agreed to undergo any necessary training to use the software and to provide feedback on its performance during the simulation. While some users did not require follow-up training, others required some refresher training to perform certain functions. SMEs for this exercise were able to quickly and successfully train to use MWDSS and were satisfied that it performed most of its functions well. They also felt that it could be a useful tool in understanding the common operational picture and had features that would allow users to obtain, evaluate, and present information more efficiently than previous methods. Overall, participants indicated that MWDSS had significant potential utility for mobile medical informatics. Some of the SME's reluctance to accept new mobile medical informatics may be viewed through a cognitive perspective. The research draws on Kelly's personal construct theory (PCT) to argue that SME's reluctance to use new mobile medical informatics are influenced by their inability to change their established group personal constructs related to information systems development and delivery activities.