Usability Evaluation of a Smartphone Medication Reminder Application in Patients Treated With Short-term Antibiotic.

Medication adherence is poor in persons with chronic disease, especially in those with multiple chronic diseases, one of which is a psychological disorder. Social support, medication education, and external reminders have been identified as facilitators of adherence. Mobile health applications have the potential to enhance adherence; however, it is unknown if publicly available applications are user-friendly and useful. We aimed to examine the usability and feasibility of the "MediSafe" medication reminder application in adults with diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome undergoing short-term antibiotic therapy and a "Medfriend" from their social support network (N = 14). A mixed-methods study was conducted. All patient participants used the MediSafe application daily for 14 days. Ease of use, ease of learning, and satisfaction scales were rated highest by both patient participants and Medfriends, whereas usefulness was rated lowest by both groups, with Medfriends' usefulness rating significantly lower than that of patient participants. Telephone interviews identified patient participants found the application instrumental in facilitating medication adherence, and Medfriends viewed themselves as active participants in the patient participants' care. The MediSafe medication reminder application is easy to use and accepted by both patients and their designated Medfriend. The MediSafe is instrumental in facilitating short-term antibiotic adherence and social support engagement.

Social practices of nurse care coordination using sensor technologies - Challenges with an alert system adoption in assisted living communities for older adults.

OBJECTIVES: From the view of everyday practices and the socio-technical coordination lens, this study aimed to analyz the gap between creators' intention and the users' implementation (mainly nursing staff and social workers) of an alert system in assisted living communities. METHODS: Qualitative methods were employed by way of five user interviews and focus groups with six system developers. Modeling instruments were applied for data collection to analyze the different clinical workflows versus the expectations of the system development team. RESULTS: Results indicate that the clinical workflow changed over time, which led to a mismatch of nurse care coordination, social practices, and technology use. The results show different mental models of the socio-technical practice. Applying the coordination theory, the following recommendations could be developed to overcome the mismatch. First, it is recommended that nursing staff set goals together. Second, a communication rhythm with the nursing staff and developer teams should be established, with guided questions to facilitate the conversation, to shed light on the different workflows and the difference in social practices when using sensor technologies or alert systems. Third, a checklist for new employees should be created so they know how and on which devices to use the alert system. Fourth, the user experience with the alert system should be improved (e.g., an improved user interface). CONCLUSIONS: This work indicates recommendations to close the mental model gap to overcome the mismatch between optimal use of the alert system and how the nursing staff is actually using it.

Exploring students' use of online sources in small groups with an augmented reality-based activity - group dynamics negatively affect identification of authentic online information.

In this study initially, we wanted to explore students' use of online sources and how they use online information to try to persuade each other when they get the group assignment to identify misleading from correct information. We grounded our concept on "OnLife" (Floridi, 2015) in which students used online information to find arguments for their actions. We created an AR-based campus tour for mobile devices in which students discussed content, identified correctness of online information and were asked to made a group decision. Four groups have been studied. Video-recorded observation and interviews were applied. During data analysis we found results that point to four distinctive patterns of relationships between social in-group dynamics and the identification of authentic online information: a) network of equal members, b) omission of one person, c) one person guides the others, d) no collaborative reasoning. The result is a 'Happy Surprise', it shows that social dynamics affected group performance stronger than equal access to online sources. Equal access to online information did not lead to a reasonable based-on-facts discussion. Group dynamics diminished the advantage of equal access and impacted decision-making more than the information itself. Because of the small study size, generalization of results is limited, but lays a foundation for follow-up or experimental studies.