Department of Biostatistical Sciences, Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2013 Jul 23;13:73. doi: 10.1186/1472-6947-13-73.
In previous work, we described the development of an 81-item video-animated tool for assessing mobility. In response to criticism levied during a pilot study of this tool, we sought to develop a new version built upon a flexible framework for designing and administering the instrument.
Rather than constructing a self-contained software application with a hard-coded instrument, we designed an XML schema capable of describing a variety of psychometric instruments. The new version of our video-animated assessment tool was then defined fully within the context of a compliant XML document. Two software applications--one built in Java, the other in Objective-C for the Apple iPad--were then built that could present the instrument described in the XML document and collect participants' responses. Separating the instrument's definition from the software application implementing it allowed for rapid iteration and easy, reliable definition of variations.
Defining instruments in a software-independent XML document simplifies the process of defining instruments and variations and allows a single instrument to be deployed on as many platforms as there are software applications capable of interpreting the instrument, thereby broadening the potential target audience for the instrument. Continued work will be done to further specify and refine this type of instrument specification with a focus on spurring adoption by researchers in gerontology and geriatric medicine.
在之前的工作中，我们开发了一个 81 项视频动画工具，用于评估移动能力。针对该工具在试点研究中收到的批评意见，我们试图开发一个新版本，该版本建立在设计和管理工具的灵活框架之上。
我们没有构建一个带有硬编码工具的独立软件应用程序，而是设计了一个能够描述各种心理计量工具的 XML 模式。我们的视频动画评估工具的新版本完全在符合要求的 XML 文档的上下文中定义。然后，我们构建了两个软件应用程序 - 一个是用 Java 构建的，另一个是用于苹果 iPad 的 Objective-C - 可以呈现 XML 文档中描述的工具，并收集参与者的响应。将工具的定义与实现它的软件应用程序分开，可以实现快速迭代，并轻松、可靠地定义变体。
在独立于软件的 XML 文档中定义工具简化了定义工具和变体的过程，并允许将单个工具部署到能够解释工具的软件应用程序的尽可能多的平台上，从而扩大了工具的潜在目标受众。我们将继续努力，进一步规范和完善这种仪器规范，重点是促进老年学和老年医学研究人员的采用。
