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3.4. Lessons Learned from the Cooperation with Doctors
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Nevertheless, in the course of the project we found that the doctors could only
devote very limited time for the joined project due to the work-load of their daily
business. Apart from that, it became evident that doctors had a very concrete
application in mind: The creation of a technical infrastructure that allows access to
the existing central patient database from a mobile hand-held client computer. This
attitude finally lead to incompatible standpoints between the doctors (users) and us
(developers). The application ideas were not practical enough for the doctors, and
the desired technical infrastructure was not scientifically interesting enough for the
researchers. As a consequence the project could not be continued.
3.4 Lessons Learned from the
Cooperation with Doctors
We tried to introduce wearable technology in a hospital environment. Since our own
background is technology, we opted for closely following and observing the users in
their current work practices. Proposing changes to current work practices using
new technology proved di cult. The doctors are currently in a local maximum
of productivity. Thus, using today’s work practices together with new technology
would actually decrease their work e ciency at least temporarily. In order to best
use the potential of new technology, current work practices have to be adapted to
incorporate it.
Discussing changes of today’s work practices provided few results, since the doctors
were locked in today’s constraints. However, proposing changes outside their current
work practices made them extrapolate from current technology and allowed them
to think about new opportunities.
Nevertheless, in the course of the project the doctors increasingly often expressed the
mere desire for a hand-held platform with access to their patient database. Their role
of partners changed to a role of customers. The overall goal of modelling, prototyping
and simulating together with changed to for them. Our finding is that prototypes,
whether fully functional or a storyboard, should and could be the design-interaction
medium between developer and user. Instead of the typical asymmetry between
developers and users (users have needs, developers fulfill them), both parties have to
productively learn from each other in a complementary partnership. Furthermore,
we learned that sticking too much with users mostly leads to results which are
incremental, closely related to established routines, and as such only a little step
of advancement. The doctors saw themselves as the immediate users that would
have to deal with the outcome of the project. Aware of their daily routines, they
opted for the feasible and only incremental advancement of accessing a database in
a mobile way. Due to their time constraints, they showed only limited willingness to
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