Body-Worn Sensor Design: What Do Patients and Clinicians Want?

Abstract

User preferences need to be taken into account in order to be able to design devices that will gain acceptance both in a clinical and home setting. Sensor systems become redundant if patients or clinicians do not want to work with them. The aim of this systematic review was to determine both patients' and clinicians' preferences for non-invasive body-worn sensor systems. A search for relevant articles and conference proceedings was performed using MEDLINE, EMBASE, Current Contents Connect, and EEEI explore. In total 843 papers were identified of which only 11 studies were deemed suitable for inclusion. A range of different clinically relevant user groups were included. The key user preferences were that a body-worn sensor system should be compact, embedded and simple to operate and maintain. It also should not affect daily behavior nor seek to directly replace a health care professional. It became apparent that despite the importance of user preferences, they are rarely considered and as such there is a lack of high-quality studies in this area. We therefore would like to encourage researchers to focus on the implications of user preferences when designing wearable sensor systems.

Wireless Surface Electromyography and Skin Temperature Sensors for Biofeedback Treatment of Headache: Validation Study with Stationary Control Equipment (Preprint)

“…We chose to investigate temperature and SMEG because they are the most commonly used biofeedback modalities [11], and are shown to be especially effective in adolescents [31]. We identified sensors fulfilling a set of predefined criteria considered necessary for the sensor to gain acceptance among patients, and thus be used [32]. The choice of sensors was arbitrary as long as the predefined criteria were met.…”

Wearable Bio and Chemical Sensors

“…Sensor systems rapidly become redundant if patients or clinicians do not want to work with them. A review of patients' and clinicians' preferences for non-invasive, body-worn sensor systems found that a body-worn sensor system should be compact, embedded, simple to operate, and should not affect daily behavior nor seek to directly replace a healthcare professional [46]. Therefore, wearable chemical sensors should be seen as an additional tool to assist in healthcare delivery and to provide better continuity of care.…”

Design Considerations for Self-Powered Wearable Wireless Multimodal Vigilant Sensing Systems

“…Although system wearability is subjective, users generally prefer that BSNs are compact, embedded on the body, and do not affect their daily behavior [3]. Therefore, system wearability can be optimized by designing a BSN to have these qualities.…”

“…To address user acceptance, researchers have emphasized the importance of making BSNs wearable and wireless [3]. To address battery life, researchers have emphasized the importance of making BSNs ultra-low power so that they can operate for long periods of time on a small battery or even be powered by an energy harvester attached to the body [4].…”