1st field trial in Cyprus
[By Sotia Nicolaou from Materia - April 2019 ]
During February and March 2019 the 1st field trial for assessing the MedGUIDE system took place in the three end-user organisations (the Netherlands, Norway and Cyprus). The MedGUIDE system was first evaluated in a controlled and afterwards in a home setting environment. In Cyprus, 3 primary, 2 secondary and 2 tertiary users were interviewed for the controlled environment trial. A detailed protocol was developed for the first trial which was followed by all end user organisations.
The main results from the primary users (in the controlled environment) show that users had some difficulty to interact with the tablet due to their unfamiliarity with technology and tablets in particular; despite of this difficulty, the MedGUIDE app was deemed easy to learn and to use. The self-reports on mood and the information provided about memory problems were indicated as the most useful functions of the MedGUIDE platform. The participants clarified that the self-reports are important in order for their caregivers to know how they feel but stated that it would be inconvenient for them to do it on a daily basis. Instead, they stated that they wished to complete these self-reports only when they noticed something different in their functioning or just wished to do so, thus the ideal frequency of a self-report could not be specified.
The aspects which were indicated by users that need improvement were the self-reports on physical discomfort and the introductory video. In respect to, self-reports users requested the addition of a neutral option, as well, in the discomfort self-reports, e.g. ‘Nothing’, ‘OK’ or ‘Well’ in order for them to have the option to report that they do not feel any kind of physical discomfort. Regarding the introductory video users stated that it needs to be slower with bigger letters and to add voice-over to assist them in understanding the instructions provided.