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.