Preserving interaction threads through the use of smartphones in hospitals

Abstract

Hospital workers need information to decide on the appropriate course of action for patient care; this information could be obtained from artifacts -such as medical records and lab results- or as a result of interactions with others. However, these exchanges could be a source of medical errors since this information is not usually preserved and could be lost -totally or partially- due to the volatility of human memory. This happens due to the verbal nature of the interaction or due to the lack of an infrastructure that facilitates the capture of information even when hospital workers are on the move. The capabilities increasingly found in Smartphones, such as WiFi, touch screen or a D-pad (directed pad), built-in camera, accelerometers, contact management software, among others, make it feasible to record significant information about the interactions that take place in the hospital and seamlessly retrieve it to support work activities. Thus, in this paper we propose a system to capture and manage collaboration outcomes in hospitals through the implementation of mobile collaboration spheres in Smartphones. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.