RP20 - Empirical evaluation of developed medical informatics tools at the point-of-care

During the first three years of the WisPerMed research training group, various medical informatics tools have been developed to assist in the clinical care of patients with malignant melanoma at the point-of-care.

The evaluation of software tools includes the systematic investigation of the usability of an object. The evaluation results and conclusions reached must be justified on the basis of empirical data (qualitative as well as quantitative). Subjective and objective methods can be applied. Objective methods include, for example, observational interviews, log file recording, video recordings, keystroke level method. Subjective methods mainly include surveys involving both users and experts (according to e.g. cognitive walkthrough). Usability tests simulate the real-life case and use problem-oriented tasks. Usability attributes include learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors, and satisfaction [1].

The evaluation approaches to be developed should take into account value criteria (task accomplishment, functionality, interaction effort), suitability for the task, self-decriptiveness, conformity with user expectations, controllability, error tolerance (e.g. undo dialog steps, understandable error messages), suitability of individualization, and suitability for learning. After the development of the evaluation approaches, the evaluations take place and are evaluated after completion and discussed in a group of experts. In addition to the usability assessment, the evaluation should also be formative, which means that it uncovers any remaining weaknesses that can subsequently be remedied.

[1] Nielsen J. Usability engineering. San Francisco, California: Morgan Kaufmann; 1993.