García-Berná José A, Ouhbi Sofia, Fernández-Alemán José L, de Gea Juan M Carrillo, Nicolás Joaquín
Department of Informatics and Systems, Faculty of Computer Science, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, CIT, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, UAE.
J Med Syst. 2021 May 6;45(6):65. doi: 10.1007/s10916-021-01725-8.
Usability plays an important role in eHealth applications for their widespread adoption. These software systems have been studied in depth in the literature from this perspective. However, the energy consumption of information systems in the eHealth domain lacks comprehensive research. In this paper, the relationship between the energy consumption of the main components of a PC and the usability evaluations of graphical user interfaces (GUI) were studied in client applications. For this purpose, personal health records (PHR) were used as a case study. A set of 4 web-based PHRs were evaluated with the performance of 20 common tasks in the aforementioned systems. The usability evaluations were carried out by 4 experts. A total of 8 heuristics particularly designed for electronic health record systems and based on the Nielsen usability heuristics were employed. The instantaneous energy values of the power supply and the monitor were collected with an energy consumption measuring equipment. As a result, the following significant correlations were found. In NoMoreClipboard between the Memory heuristic and the power supply (r = 0.495, p = 0.044), and the Minimalist heuristic and the monitor (r = - 0.513, p = 0.035). In PatientsLikeMe between the Minimalist heuristic and the power supply (r = - 0.479, p = 0.083), as well as in the Error heuristic and the power supply (r = - 0.638, p = 0.014). Finally, in Health Companion between the Match heuristic and the power supply (r = - 0.481, p = 0.043), and the Error heuristic and the power supply again (r = - 0.602, p = 0.008). Apart from that, the tasks were divided into those with excellent and fair usability. Those tasks with high usability scores were evaluated to detect whether they also had low energy consumption during task performance. Significant differences were found in PatientsLikeMe with respect to the Error heuristic and the power supply (212.39 ± 18.85W). Significant differences were also found in Health Companion with respect to the Match heuristic and the power supply (199.91 ± 7.19W). The results were discussed to reveal the fundamentals of how implementing usability can impact on energy costs when running client applications.
可用性对于电子健康应用的广泛采用起着重要作用。从这个角度来看，这些软件系统在文献中已经得到了深入研究。然而，电子健康领域中信息系统的能源消耗缺乏全面的研究。在本文中，研究了个人计算机主要组件的能源消耗与客户端应用程序中图形用户界面（GUI）可用性评估之间的关系。为此，将个人健康记录（PHR）用作案例研究。使用上述系统中的20项常见任务的性能对一组4个基于网络的PHR进行了评估。可用性评估由4位专家进行。总共采用了8条特别为电子健康记录系统设计且基于尼尔森可用性启发式原则的启发式规则。使用能耗测量设备收集电源和显示器的瞬时能量值。结果发现了以下显著相关性。在NoMoreClipboard中，内存启发式规则与电源之间（r = 0.495，p = 0.044），以及简约启发式规则与显示器之间（r = -0.513，p = 0.035）。在PatientsLikeMe中，简约启发式规则与电源之间（r = -0.479，p = 0.083），以及错误启发式规则与电源之间（r = -0.638，p = 0.014）。最后，在Health Companion中，匹配启发式规则与电源之间（r = -0.481，p = 0.043），以及错误启发式规则与电源之间再次出现显著相关性（r = -0.602，p = 0.008）。除此之外，任务被分为可用性优秀和一般的任务。对那些可用性得分高的任务进行评估，以检测它们在任务执行期间是否也具有低能耗。在PatientsLikeMe中，关于错误启发式规则和电源发现了显著差异（212.39 ± 18.85W）。在Health Companion中，关于匹配启发式规则和电源也发现了显著差异（199.91 ± 7.19W）。对结果进行了讨论，以揭示在运行客户端应用程序时实施可用性如何影响能源成本的基本原理。
