Abstract
This paper describes a case study in which mobile computers were used by a UK National Health Service (NHS) Trust. The intention was to give clinicians access to up-to-date patient data, enabling them to be more clinically effective in their jobs. Since the majority of their work was performed in the community, it was perceived that the use of hand-held computers would give the flexibility needed to allow this clinical effectiveness to occur. This paper will attempt to demonstrate what happened in reality and point to various factors that had not been considered prior to the introduction of the system. Had these factors been considered, a different system would have been designed with a better fit between the organisation, the needs of the user and their work environment.
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McManus, B. Mobile computers in a community NHS trust: Is this a relevant context and environment for their use?. Personal Technologies 4, 96–101 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01324116
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01324116