Use-centred design of medical and health care technology: a pilot study of field tests as a development tool

Journal article, 2011

The purpose of the project described in the paper was to develop a process through which users, staff as well as patients, can be involved in field evaluations of medical and health-care technology. Interviews with different stakeholders and the experiences from four case studies have led to the following conclusions: Users have the potential to act as active evaluators rather than passive subjects or participants only. However, user involvement in field evaluations must be supported by a formation of facilitators or ‘door openers’ to the health-care organization, moderators enhancing the dialogue between developers and users, and mentors for the users acting as evaluators.