Software Testing - Monday, May 3, 1999 - CIT 169
Participants:
Steve Cobery, Lisa Menard, Vasilios Zerris, and Dr. Meredith Goodwin
We asked
some of Dr. Goodwin's students and her to test the project and give some
of their thoughts on how we could improve the project both in terms of
its ease of use and educational value.
Introduction/Nurses
Notes Section
Steve found this section to be lacking. He suggested that 'vitals'
be included, noting that most triage information had this.
Lisa
and Vasilios liked the page - and recommended no changes.
We will
forward Steve's request to Dr. Goodwin - it should be an easy change.
Interview
We had some problems (many are now fixed) with the question matching portion
of our program and thus, many good questions were not recongnized. Among
those were the following:
- Do you have any other symptoms
- Have you had this before?
- Do you drink alcohol?
- How long have you been smoking?
Other
problems with questions were solved by asking variations of the same question.
One of
the biggest complaints was that the program forces the user to ask "closed-ended"
questions - which is contrary to the preferred technique of asking "open-ended"
questions. This can be somewhat mitigated if more questions are mapped
to the desired answers, which we will be incorporating into the final
version.
Vasilios
also suggested we familiarize the program with some of the "buzzwords"
used in the field.
Lab Tests
Vasilios noted that it would be "100% better" to have the actual test
results, electrocardiogram results, etc. However, he understood
that technical considerations (esp. those of the program administrator)
may make this impossible.
Steve
suggested that we use CBC with "differentials". We asked him if
he then 'integrated' this into his diagnosis (he didn't laugh either).
Also, he wanted more selections for labs and tests.
Lisa
agreed with Steve, and they both suggested that the program record all
the tests ordered and keep track of the "cost" for the tests. That way,
at the end of the diagnosis, the user can also see how much their diagnosis
cost the hospital. Vasilios hated the idea - but, lost the vote when Dr.
Goodwin agreed with Steve and Lisa.
Physical Exam
While not working at the time of the testing - they all had suggestions
for this part. The main question we wanted them to consider was:
Would it make more sense to have a manequin or a photograph to do
the PE. Consensus was a photo would be better... however, Dr. Goodwin
was ambivilent.
Diagnosis
All wanted an explaination as to "why" Dr. Goodwin's diagnosis is correct
and why other associated diagnosis probably are not correct. Also,
Vasilios suggested (and Dr. Goodwin agreed) maybe having an "ask the attending
physician " function that would provide a hint for those who are having
difficulty.
Administrative Backend Stuff
Dr. Goodwin was shown the backend stuff - and she made many suggestions
on how best to format the forms on the page to make it easy to update
cases, add cases, obtain user information, and administer the program.
General
Comments
Everyone said they were impressed (thanks!). We will try to incorporate
as many of the suggestions as possible.
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