Requirements for a dashboard optimized for melanoma patient care through user-centered context exploration

Area of Science:

• Medical Informatics
• Clinical Decision Support

Background:

• Physicians treating malignant melanoma need rapid patient status overviews for timely interventions.
• Current information access can be fragmented, hindering efficient point-of-care decision-making.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze context-specific features and processes at the point of care.
• To derive requirements for a physician dashboard that simplifies information access for malignant melanoma patients.

Main Methods:

• Employed the Think-Aloud method, contextual inquiries, and interviews with dermatologists.
• Utilized an affinity diagram to group and categorize user statements and observations.
• Defined, confirmed, and prioritized requirements based on derived themes.

Main Results:

• Identified four key topics: "Identifying and Processing the Important", "Patient Record", "Clinical Routine", and "Systems".
• Generated 135 requirements for context- and indication-specific patient dashboards.
• Highlighted that crucial aspects for dashboard design are often generalizable across medical contexts.

Conclusions:

• Dashboard design must prioritize enabling physicians to focus on relevant patient information.
• The study provides a framework for developing effective clinical dashboards to improve patient care.
• Findings suggest that core dashboard requirements can be adapted for various medical specialties.