NKF Letters9 September 2011
Subject: Study on improving the usability and safety of home haemodialysis machines
I am a PhD student in Human-Computer Interaction at University College London, researching how the design of home haemodialysis machines could be improved so they are safer and easier to use, by understanding how people actually use the machines in their homes and what difficulties they experience while interacting with the machines. This involves visiting home haemodialysis patients or carers and interviewing them on their experiences. Additionally, if a patient or carer is interested in helping capture data about incidents involving the machines, we are lending them pocket-size high-definition Flip camcorders to maintain video diaries. My research is part of a large UK Research Council funded project, CHI+MED, that aims to improve the usability and safety of medical devices (www.chi-med.ac.uk).
I am currently looking for home haemodialysis patients or carers who would be interested in participating in the study, preferably in the Greater London area, but I would be willing to travel to other areas as well. I have obtained approval from the NHS Research Ethics Committee for doing this study. The REC reference number is 11/LO/0329. Please note that all data will be anonymised and treated confidentially.
If you would like to participate, please get in touch with me. My email address is atish.rajkomar.09@ucl.ac.uk and my telephone number is 020 7679 0363.
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