{"id":496,"date":"2011-04-26T16:02:29","date_gmt":"2011-04-26T20:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thinking.is\/?p=496"},"modified":"2024-07-11T10:59:33","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T14:59:33","slug":"plastics-in-medical-devices-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.daed.com\/?p=496","title":{"rendered":"Differences to Consider Between Clinical and Home Environments: User Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several of our group recently presented at the 2011 Plastics in Medical Devices Conference, in Huron, Ohio. Here’s what Carolynn Johnson<\/a> had to say on the importance of conducting Design Research as healthcare moves from the clinical environment to home healthcare:<\/span><\/p>\n

As healthcare moves from the realm of the clinical setting, in which medical professionals are always on hand when patients are present, to the home health care sphere, it is absolutely vital that user research be given due diligence. The home environment is spectacularly different from the clinical environment, not just in the physical dissimilarities, but also in terms of the scenarios of use in those environments and with regards to the users\u2019 and the caregivers\u2019 goals and aspirations. All of which result in very disparate patient or caregiver interactions with the tools required to maintain a medical condition.<\/span><\/p>\n

Key takeaways<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nOnce in the home, the patient\u2019s goals will change. Clinical settings are about acute treatment \u2013 the patient may be in cardiac arrest or in acute renal failure \u2013 home healthcare is about management of a condition. And more to the point, it\u2019s about managing that condition in such a way that the patient \u2026 pardon me, \u201cthe user\u201d can live life as normally as possible, rather than living as \u201cthe patient\u201d.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"A<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nOnce the medical tools move to the home sphere, the distractions and interruptions that surround the patient will be very different, and quite probably, more demanding, than those encountered in the hospitals and other clinical sites.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"A<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nNovices users will be completing critical medical tasks in unsupervised settings – gone will be the days when the medical professional changes the insertion site for an infusion pump, but also gone will be the days when the patient completes these tasks under the watchful eye of the medical professional who will catch any mistakes and omissions that may take place.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Children<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nFailure modes that were never even considered in the clinical environment may be encountered in the home<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

However, manufacturers that are accustomed to doing research in a clinical environment will encounter a drastically different research landscape as they move into home health care research.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Home Health Care Research Landscape<\/span><\/h2>\n