Endarasha Testing
Today we traveled to Endarasha to test the full Mashavu system for one last time during our time in Kenya. Upon arriving in the chilly atmosphere of the Endarasha Health Clinic, the BioE team set up the temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate, height and weight, spirometer, and stethoscope stations in two of the rooms. James and Katie of the Education team were responsible for educating the patients on the background of the devices before they used them. For each of the stations, students from the CYEC helped to both translate Swahili and operate some of the medical devices. It was brought to the attention of the BioE team that questions asked during the testing in Mweiga and at the CYEC were leading questions and compromised statistical analysis of data gathered. With the help of the Education team, the BioE team eliminated most of the questions previously asked and replaced them by asking how the patients felt about the experience after each device. However, the reworded questions hindered the acquisition of useful feedback about the user experience due to difficulty in translating the exact words we wanted and focusing the user on the exact questions we wanted. Patients typically responded with “good” or “happy to be tested,” which did not necessarily provide any more insight than what we had encountered previously. Michael ended stethoscope testing early because no new user experience data was being collected, and sufficient sound files from the stethoscope had been obtained to determine flaws in the design and programming. At the beginning of the day, sixty cards were handed out to people interested in using the clinic so that we could conclude the testing at a reasonable time. Throughout the day our plan changed significantly as Sister Purity recruited additional volunteers to be tested in our the clinic. After about three quarters of the card recipients had been run through the clinic, Mike’s pulse rate and Brittany’s temperature sensor were shut down in order to save time and allow all the patients to receive height, weight, and blood pressure. Mary, the CYEC nurse, once again proved to be very important in satisfying the patients’ expectations of being able to talk to a true medical professional. She was able to talk to many of the patients at the end of their testing to provide a quick analysis of what each of their numbers meant for their overall health and well-being.
A full Mashavu kiosk was assembled by Aaron and Sara in another room, which included the thermometer and pulse rate monitor devices created by the BioE teams. Random participants were picked from the queue outside to bypass the BioE devices and head straight to the kiosk room. Mary was on hand to help to focus the background questions toward those which would be asked in a face-to-face interview. Data from the kiosk was sent over the Internet to the Web Development team, seated in another room, to test the communication of the telemedicine system. This was the first full case sent as an attachment over the iPath system of Mashavu that had a nurse on both ends of the data transfer.
During the testing, the rest of the Education team worked on crowd control and helped to organize “a proper queue” by giving numbered cards to each patient. They also helped in educating the patients about Mashavu before entering the rooms with the BioE devices and the kiosk.
After completing testing on all the patients waiting outside the clinic, we departed from Endarasha around 3:45pm and left for Hotel Ivory. There was an amazing view of Mt. Kenya on the way back, and we followed it up with a relaxing/fun evening.
Michael Fickes and Mike Perone
BioE Team
