D3: Emerging & Accessible Healthcare Technologies

Ongoing Technical Reports

Progress on Technical Reports Related to Strategic Standards Activities:

D3.1 - Technical Reports Related to Medical Monitoring/Consultation/Therapy Interfaces:

The motivation is that there is a rich variety of interfaces available for displays and controls, and it is important for the RERC to develop a systematic understanding and classification of current interfaces. These technical reports also provide a valuable experience for students, and may be helpful to other projects of the RERC such as R1.4. The tables being created in these areas consist of 30-55 columns and a row for each product, and will be embedded within a larger product database.

Home-based Medical Monitoring Technologies:

• Medical Monitoring Technologies [Mark Mundschau]. This summer 2003 technical report (July 2003) examined medical monitoring devices and their accessibility to healthcare professionals with visual, auditory, and motor disabilities. Factors taken into consideration included display type, annunciation of patient alarms, and control schemes. These were divided into three major categories: bedside monitors (BSM), vital signs monitors (VSM), and central monitoring stations. Sections were executive summary, background, product summary (with tables), product evaluation, recommendations and references. One clear challenge was the wealth of monitoring technologies, many of which are only used by health professionals in controlled hospital settings.
• Home-based Medical Monitoring Technologies [Matthew Shaning]. This ongoing report extends the previous report, but targets medical monitoring technologies that may be used by consumer-patients as well as caregivers. This report targeted home medical monitoring technologies that may be used by consumer-patients as well as caregivers, with 35 products evaluated involving 36 categories.

Access to Videoconferencing Technologies [Jason Foil]

• The summer 2003 technical report of the same title (version 0.1, August, 2003) reviewed how videoconferencing products could be used in their current state by people who have disabilities (e.g., visual, hearing, speech, motor). The most common aspects that were addressed in this assessment were estimates of how difficulties relating to visual impairments, hearing impairments, lack of speech, and motor deficiencies could be compensated for by adjusting current products. This preliminary technical report led to an IRB-approved, ongoing pilot study entitled "Effectiveness of Multimedia Telecommunication among Persons with Disabilities," discussed on D3.1 Progress. The previous technical report was updated during the Summer of Octoberof 2004. This report reviewed 43 products, with 50 columns of data (e.g., documenting control operation, video/audio modes.

D3.2 - Technical Reports Related to Modality Translation & Cross-Disability Interfaces for Communication:

Integrating Accessibility Considerations within Medical Instrumentation Standards and Classification: HL7, IEEE-10, V2 Standards [Sarma Danturthi, Xin Feng, Melinda Winter, Jack Winters]. This planned technical report aims is to classify products based on a focus on the device interface as opposed to the medical function, while fully building on the existing standards such as HL7. Extensions are proposed that tie this classification to considerations of accessibility considerations and cross-disability interfaces. It is expected that a new technical report will be available on by RERC-AMI web site in Summer 2005.

Universal Interfaces for Navigation and Control:

• Universal Interfaces: Investigation on Speech Technology Engines and Applications [Xin “ Tyre ” Feng]. This summer 2003 technical report (version 0.1, July 2003) surveyed speech recognition and speech synthesis technologies, with software examples. It included an executive summary, background, product summary (with tables), product evaluation, recommendations and references.
• Universal Interfaces for Control of Computing Devices. This report is being updated and extended, with a focus on advancing technologies for navigation and control of computing devices, including control by speech. The aim is to produce Tech Report V1.0.

"Universal Remote Console” Standard [Jack Winters, Sarma Danturthi, Xin Feng, Pawan Shroff]. This new activity, initiated in July 2004, is motivated by interaction with two other RERCs: the Wireless RERC (initiated during their State of the Technology conference in June) and the RERC on Information Access. Both of these RERCs are members of the V2 consortium, which is chaired by Gregg Vanderheiden of the RERC on Information Access; Marquette University is becoming a member, with the RERC-AMI providing part of the membership fee. V2 is an industry standard developed by the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) that allows manufacturers to install an "interface portal" on their product, which then allows customers to use a wide variety of remote controls with the product, usually through wireless or network technology, that give the user access to all of the controls for the product as well as all of the displays for the product. The aim of this team is to become informed in this standard and participate in upcoming V2 meetings, and implement simulations. Then by October 2004 (before the end of Year 2 of this RERC), a technical report will be available on the RERC-AMI web site that addresses the possibilities for using the V2 standard for multi-modal medical device interfaces of the future.