Adapting the Human-Computer Interface for Reading Literacy and Computer Skill to Facilitate Collection of Information Directly from Patients

Clinical information collected directly from patients is critical to the practice of medicine. Past efforts to collect this information using computers have had limited utility because these efforts required users to be facile with the computerized information collecting system. In this paper we describe the design, development, and function of a computer system that uses recent technology to overcome the limitations of previous computer-based data collection tools by adapting the human-computer interface to the native language, reading literacy, and computer skills of the user. Specifically, our system uses a numerical representation of question content, multimedia, and touch screen technology to adapt the computer interface to the native language, reading literacy, and computer literacy of the user. In addition, the system supports health literacy needs throughout the data collection session and provides contextually relevant disease-specific education to users based on their responses to the questions. The system has been successfully used in an academically affiliated family medicine clinic and in an indigent adult medicine clinic.

[1]  R J Lilford,et al.  Strengths and weaknesses of direct patient interviewing by a microcomputer system in specialist gynaecological practice. , 1984, European journal of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology.

[2]  J G Mayne,et al.  Computer-aided history acquisition. , 1970, The Medical clinics of North America.

[3]  W. Card,et al.  A comparison of doctor and computer interrogation of patients. , 1974, International journal of bio-medical computing.

[4]  H. K. Thompson,et al.  An automated "well-baby" questionnaire. , 1973, Pediatrics.

[5]  I W Webster,et al.  Patient evaluation of a computerised questionnaire. , 1976, Computers and biomedical research, an international journal.

[6]  Johanna D. Moore,et al.  An intelligent interactive system for delivering individualized information to patients , 1995, Artif. Intell. Medicine.

[7]  R J Lilford,et al.  The use of a patient-interactive microcomputer system to obtain histories in an infertility and gynecologic endocrinology clinic. , 1983, American journal of obstetrics and gynecology.

[8]  B. Wildemuth,et al.  Development of an adaptive multimedia program to collect patient health data. , 2001, American journal of preventive medicine.

[9]  W W Stead,et al.  Computer-assisted interview of patients with functional headache. , 1972, Archives of internal medicine.

[10]  Collen Mf Patient data acquisition. , 1978 .

[11]  W. Slack,et al.  Computer Interviewing of Patients with Epilepsy , 1976, Epilepsia.

[12]  J H van Bemmel,et al.  Comparisons between written and computerised patient histories. , 1987, British medical journal.

[13]  S Hasley,et al.  A Comparison of Computer‐Based and Personal Interviews for the Gynecologic History Update , 1995, Obstetrics and Gynecology.