We describe design and prototyping efforts for a Personal Health Management Assistant for heart failure patients as part of Project HealthDesign. An assistant is more than simply an application. An assistant understands what its users need to do, interacts naturally with them, reacts to what they say and do, and is proactive in helping them manage their health. In this project, we focused on heart failure, which is not only a prevalent and economically significant disease, but also one that is very amenable to self-care. Working with patients, and building on our prior experience with conversational assistants, we designed and developed a prototype system that helps heart failure patients record objective and subjective observations using spoken natural language conversation. Our experience suggests that it is feasible to build such systems and that patients would use them. The system is designed to support rapid application to other self-care settings.
Skill decay after periods of skill disuse is well known and has substantial implications when relatively long periods of time separate training from the application of learned skills. We conducted a small study that examined the differential effects of virtual reality versus conventional computer-based media on skill retention. The results reported are preliminary, but were consistent with earlier research that reports that VR may not be superior to conventional electronic media for training certain intellectual skills. Little is known, however about the effects of VR in support of practice strategies for reducing skill decay. Implications for future research are discussed.
We conducted a study that contrasted the effects of virtual reality versus conventional computerbased instruction on retention of a simple procedure involving equipment operation. Seventy-two subjects between the ages of 20 and 30 were recruited from the general public. An intelligent tutor was used to manage the instruction in both treatments. The results were consistent with earlier research that reports that VR may not be superior to conventional electronic media for training certain intellectual skills. Implications for future research are discussed.
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