Page - 57 - in Applied Interdisciplinary Theory in Health Informatics - Knowledge Base for Practitioners

Table 2. Summary of the application of UCD and AT in the requirements, evaluation stages of the Mobile Health Service Framework. UCD Lifecycle Stage UCD Principle Application of UCD and AT in the Use Case Understand and specify the context of use Gain a clear understanding of users, healthcare tasks and environment. Analysing the characteristics of the users and relevant stakeholders, their health activities, work processes and the environmental conditions in which the system will be used. Structured interviews were conducted with a group of potential users to identify the healthcare needs of patients. Applying UCD helped with the definition of the users and to understand the context of use. Users here are doctors, nurses and patients. UCD also facilitated understanding the needs of potential users early in the requirement process. AT helped identify and understand the interaction amongst the users, the activities they perform and the use of the patient health card as a mediating tool. Findings from the study were also analysed using constructs of AT. Two criteria were considered for acceptance, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Establish the user and/ or organisational requirements Formal specification of user requirements, inferred from the defined context of use. The requirements are based on both the needs of patients, the work process of doctors and nurses in the healthcare delivery service. The requirements of the MHSF include reduced waiting times and appointment durations, and SMS facilities regarding health information. Produce design solutions The design solutions are produced while trying to meet user requirements as much as possible. Transforming user needs and requirements to inform the development of the MHSF. Evaluate design against requirements The design is evaluated. The proposed MHSF was evaluated using an expert review on the acceptance, usability, perceived usefulness and ease of use. 2.3. Use Case 2: Implementation evaluation of a mHealth system used by community health workers AT can also provide a theoretical lens for adopting a UCD approach to evaluating systems in the deployment phase. MomConnect is a mHealth system used by community health workers in South Africa to provide advice to pregnant women via SMS [27]. The system was part of a government initiative to improve public services due to the high South African rates of pregnant women facing poverty and multiple health conditions. The users of the system are the community health workers, the pregnant women and the clinic managers. Community health workers use the system to register pregnant women, to enable them to receive messages from the system. Pregnant women use the system to receive advice and appointment reminders via SMS. Clinic managers run the antenatal clinics where registration takes place and have access to the system data [27]. A.GoodandO.Omisade /LinkingActivityTheorywithUserCentredDesign 57