A prototype computer network service for occupational therapists

Due to recent reforms, the demands on the people working in community-orien ted health care service are increasing. The individual providers need profe ssional knowledge and skills to perform their tasks quickly and safely. The individuals are also confronted with new tasks and situations of which the y lack experience. At the same time, the resources for education and develo pment are decreasing. The aim of this paper is to describe the implementati on of a prototype computer network service to support occupational therapis ts in their daily work. A customized Quality Function Deployment (QFD) mode l, including participatory design elements, was used for: (a) identificatio n of the occupational therapists' needs; and (b) for the transformation of these needs to prioritized design attributes. The main purpose of the proto type was to improve the visualization of the design attributes that were fo und to support the occupational therapists. An additional purpose was to be able to evaluate the design attributes and further improve them. The speci fic aim of this article is to describe the initial prototype with respect b oth to the tools and the information content. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ire land Ltd. All rights reserved.