Professor Dag Svanæs, of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, said that simulations run by centre's usability lab show staff being reluctant to abandon paper even when computer devices are easily to hand.
The research centre in Trondheim builds mocked-up health environments such as wards, then films medical professionals using technology, with the footage then reviewed by health staff and technology developers. One simulation saw a doctor searching for paper and pen to copy something off a computer screen.
"It shows the strength of some of these habits," Svanæs told the SmartHealthcare.com Mobile and Wireless Healthcare conference in Birmingham on 24 February 2010. "Paper is very efficient for a lot of purposes."
He said that most computer equipment has been designed for offices, following Xerox's Parc research centre which in the 1970s created many of the concepts used in today's computers. But in health, "very few of the 'use situations' are like the office," Svanæs said. "We have to move from classic usability simulations to clinical practice."
Each health situation may need different equipment, he added, with many more such 'use situations' in hospitals than in primary care. "It's not possible to find one device that fits all 'use situations'. It requires a deep understanding of the users, the tasks and the use situations," he said.
An important aspect involves how data is shared with the patient, Svanæs said. The research centre looked at how X-rays could be presented to patients using personal video screens mounted on arms by every bed in a Trondheim hospital, with the doctor using a personal digital assistant (PDA) to choose which scans to show. Some of the problems related to the graphical user interfaces of the screen and the PDA, but the biggest problem was that patients felt the doctor was hiding the list of X-rays on his PDA.
Svanæs added that such simulation work could help resolve problems between the groups involved in such systems, for example the healthcare provider, an ICT firm, the staff and the patients. Recalling one simulation project, he said: "We became something of a neutral meeting ground" for discussions about how the system would work.
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