Tools to construct the comparative analysis of existing medical portals

Abstract

The aim of portals, which are made up of information sources, is to offer a structured interface to which the user has access. Nevertheless, concerns remain about what factors can contribute to portal long-term use. Portal infrastructures are centred around Web technologies with the familiar interface being the Web browser. As a case study, this project focuses on the development of medical portals that allow the medical community with access to medical records through the Web browser. Medical portals are felt to be a valid representative class of Web portals as their information is by its nature large, non-trivial, and distributed. Furthermore, medical patient portals draw their effectiveness from the extent of patient involvement they engender. As grounding, this project explores the background defining what a web portal is through its functional and non-functional properties and defines various web portal classifications. Following a survey of previous researchers found in developing these types of information products, coupled with a study of technologies required to construct portals, using medical portals as a representative case, the issue of web portal usability and longevity was addressed. By analysing previous studies, it was concluded that the most important characteristics when developing an effective portal were the targeted users’ level of maturity, portal usage and portal overall security. By understanding the motivation for the use of web portals, the project explores the application of techniques such as activity theory which seeks to comprehend human interaction through analysis of their activities to increase the effectiveness of web portals. In the case of medical portals, studies have shown that activity theory is an effective tool for depicting the non-trivial nature of medical environments. For this reason, a system will be developed using an activity theory approach and implemented through the use of appropriate frameworks. For portals to be accessible, they must be constructed in a manner that makes them simple to use while always fulfilling both requirements and usage constraints.