An Investigation of the Usability Issues of Home-based Video Telemedicine Systems with Geriatric Patients

Telemedicine is the use of technology to provide and support healthcare when distance separates the clinical service and the patient. This system is rapidly replacing the conventional method of in-person clinical visits. More than seventy percent of the geriatric population is predicted to need long-term healthcare; telemedicine could potentially support their increased healthcare needs. However, for increased user acceptance, it is important to investigate the usability of telemedicine systems. This study aims to investigate the usability issues associated with geriatric patients using home-based video telemedicine systems. Four home-based video telemedicine systems were chosen for this study: (1) Doxy.me, (2) Polycom, (3) Vidyo and (4) VSee. Using a between-subjects experimental design, 20 participants were randomly assigned to one of these four conditions. They were asked to complete a demographic questionnaire, followed by the completion of representative tasks on the telemedicine platform. This is followed by a retrospective think-aloud session at the end of which, the participants completed a NASA-TLX workload survey, an IBM Computer System Usability Questionnaire (IBM-CSUQ), and a post-test subjective questionnaire. Issues faced by the participants include downloading application plug-ins, locating icons and the size of the icons.