A methodology to assess human factors of ambulatory portable information systems

This paper describes a methodology to assess human factors of ambulatory portable systems, which has been applied to a particular system for the management of diabetic patients, developed in our laboratories (DIACRONO). It is based on automatic recording of any interaction (local time and event code) of the user with the portable systems and has been implemented by a set of built-in tools procedures installed on patient pocket computer units. Results are evaluated in their capability to objectively describe user behaviours patterns to induce formative or summative evaluation outcomes. The method developed provides a non-intrusive and concurrent description of the interaction between the patient and the hand-held unit, opening a new procedure to characterize the patient behaviour in a way untenable with any other methods. Other approaches such as questionnaires and self assessment to verify objective results were also included. The methodology developed can be used to analyze human factors suited to information systems for chronic patient self-care.