Narasimhadevara A, Radhakrishnan T, Leung B, Jayakumar R
Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Que., Canada H3G 1M8.
J Biomed Inform. 2008 Feb;41(1):137-51. doi: 10.1016/j.jbi.2007.03.006. Epub 2007 Mar 31.
Solid organ transplant has been steadily increasing in number both nationally and internationally. Caring for the transplant patients in the hospital setting, right after the patient is moved from the intensive care unit to the ward, is one of the most challenging tasks in nursing. It involves many procedures, rigid protocols, tight monitoring, and intensive data gathering for use by the other coordinating healthcare professionals. The complexity is further increased when a nurse has to take care of several transplant patients in a single shift. Of late, there has been a growth of computer applications in nursing and clinical information systems. Their acceptability and usability determine the ultimate success of computer support for this complex task. In this paper, we present a case study in which we combine two well-known software engineering techniques--namely, agile programming and user centered design--toward the goal of developing an interactive system for supporting the activities of transplant nurses in a hospital setting. This has resulted in a usable end-product and the user centered approach has motivated the nurses to move towards the use of computers in their jobs for better productivity. The product's usability was formally evaluated and is reported herein. The strengths and limitations of this approach are also discussed. The software product developed has been well accepted and is currently being planned to replace the manual methods followed in the transplant ward of a large metropolitan hospital.
实体器官移植在国内和国际上的数量都在稳步增长。在医院环境中护理移植患者，即在患者从重症监护病房转到病房后立即进行护理，是护理工作中最具挑战性的任务之一。这涉及许多程序、严格的规程、严密的监测以及为其他协调医疗专业人员收集密集的数据。当一名护士在一个班次中要照顾多名移植患者时，复杂性会进一步增加。近年来，护理和临床信息系统中的计算机应用有所增长。它们的可接受性和可用性决定了计算机对这项复杂任务支持的最终成功。在本文中，我们展示了一个案例研究，在该研究中我们结合了两种著名的软件工程技术——即敏捷编程和以用户为中心的设计——以开发一个交互式系统，用于支持医院环境中移植护士的工作。这产生了一个可用的最终产品，并且以用户为中心的方法促使护士在工作中使用计算机以提高生产力。对该产品的可用性进行了正式评估并在此报告。还讨论了这种方法的优点和局限性。所开发的软件产品已被广泛接受，目前正计划取代一家大型都市医院移植病房所采用的手工方法。
