Development and evaluation of a point-of-care interactive patient education kiosk

We have developed an interactive patient education kiosk. The kiosk provides access to stored health information and to selected Websites via a high-speed Internet connection. The output is bilingual (English or Spanish) and an enclosed printer allows information to be printed and taken home for later reading. Each kiosk records patient usage, as well as the results of a brief, voluntary, online evaluation questionnaire. Three kiosks were placed in the patient waiting area of busy multi-specialty clinics. Two kiosks were active for 2.5 years and one was active for 1.5 years. There were 38,868 user sessions recorded and 2878 users participated in the online survey questionnaire (7% of all user sessions). Patient satisfaction was high; for example, 68% of respondents found some or all of the information they were looking for on the kiosk. In the year following the introduction of the first kiosk (the 2001/02 flu season), there was a 24% increase in the number of patients receiving flu vaccinations within the Palo Alto health-care system, compared with the previous year. Experience to date suggests that the kiosks may increase patient compliance with selected clinical guidelines and instructions.