To track or not to track: user reactions to concepts in longitudinal health monitoring.

Full Abstract

BACKGROUND:
Advances in ubiquitous computing, smart homes, and sensor technologies enable novel, longitudinal health monitoring applications in the home. Many home monitoring technologies have been proposed to detect health crises, support aging-in-place, and improve medical care. Health professionals and potential end users in the lay public, however, sometimes question whether home health monitoring is justified given the cost and potential invasion of privacy.

OBJECTIVE:
The aim of the study was to elicit specific feedback from health professionals and laypeople about how they might use longitudinal health monitoring data for proactive health and well-being.

METHODS:
Interviews were conducted with 8 health professionals and 26 laypeople. Participants were asked to evaluate mock data visualization displays that could be generated by novel home monitoring systems. The mock displays were used to elicit reactions to longitudinal monitoring in the home setting as well as what behaviors, events, and physiological indicators people were interested in tracking.

RESULTS:
Based on the qualitative data provided by the interviews, lists of benefits of and concerns about health tracking from the perspectives of the practitioners and laypeople were compiled. Variables of particular interest to the interviewees, as well as their specific ideas for applications of collected data, were documented.

CONCLUSIONS:
Based upon these interviews, we recommend that ubiquitous "monitoring" systems may be more readily adopted if they are developed as tools for personalized, longitudinal self-investigation that help end users learn about the conditions and variables that impact their social, cognitive, and physical health.

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Author information

Author/s: Beaudin, Jennifer S (JS); Intille, Stephen S (SS); Morris, Margaret E (ME);

Affiliation: House_n, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. jbeaudin(-atsign-)mit.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Journal of medical Internet research (J Med Internet Res), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-; vol 8 (issue 4) : pp e29

Dates: Created 2007/01/19; Completed 2007/01/31; Revised 2008/11/20;

PMID: 17236264, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Attitude of Health Personnel
Female
Health Services Research
Home Care Services - organization & administration
Humans
Male

Monitoring, Ambulatory - methods
Patient Satisfaction
Quality Indicators, Health Care
Technology Assessment, Biomedical - organization & administration
Telemedicine - methods
United States

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