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Fully or semi-automatic contouring tools are increasingly being used in the tumor contouring task for radiotherapy. While the fully automatic contouring tools have not reached sufficient efficiency, the semi-automatic contouring tools balance more effectively between the human interaction and automation. This study evaluates the influences of a semi-automation contouring tool, called between-slice interpolation, on the resulting contours and the contouring process. The tumor contouring study was conducted on three patient cases with five physicians in a naturalistic setting. The contouring task consisted of initiating the 2D contour manually or with the interpolation tool and correcting that initial contour. The similarity of the resulting contours was pairwise measured within the manual or the interpolated category. Interactions with the software were recorded, and variations in the contouring workflows steps were compared. Results indicated that using the between-slice interpolation tool for creating the initial contour, instead of initiating it manually, influenced both the contouring process and outcomes. First, it was identified that contours initiated by the interpolation tool showed an increased similarity among themselves compared to the manually initiated contours. At the same time, influences to the resulting contours were below clinical relevance, and toward the desired direction—improved consistency of contours. Second, when interpolation was used, in two cases out of three, the average contouring time also decreased significantly. Therefore, the use of such an automation tool can be encouraged., Mechatronic Design, Industrial Design

Sensemaking theories help designers understand the cognitive processes of a user when he/she performs a complicated task. This paper introduces a two-step approach of incorporating sensemaking support within the design of health information systems by: (1) modeling the sensemaking process of physicians while performing a task, and (2) identifying software interaction design requirements that support sensemaking based on this model. The two-step approach is presented based on a case study of the tumor contouring clinical task for radiotherapy planning. In the first step of the approach, a contextualized sensemaking model was developed to describe the sensemaking process based on the goal, the workflow and the context of the task. In the second step, based on a research software prototype, an experiment was conducted where three contouring tasks were performed by eight physicians respectively. Four types of navigation interactions and five types of interaction sequence patterns were identified by analyzing the gathered interaction log data from those twenty-four cases. Further in-depth study on each of the navigation interactions and interaction sequence patterns in relation to the contextualized sensemaking model revealed five main areas for design improvements to increase sensemaking support. Outcomes of the case study indicate that the proposed two-step approach was beneficial for gaining a deeper understanding of the sensemaking process during the task, as well as for identifying design requirements for better sensemaking support., Mechatronic Design, Industrial Design

Fully or semi-automatic contouring tools are increasingly being used in the tumor contouring task for radiotherapy. While the fully automatic contouring tools have not reached sufficient efficiency, the semi-automatic contouring tools balance more effectively between the human interaction and automation. This study evaluates the influences of a semi-automation contouring tool, called between-slice interpolation, on the resulting contours and the contouring process. The tumor contouring study was conducted on three patient cases with five physicians in a naturalistic setting. The contouring task consisted of initiating the 2D contour manually or with the interpolation tool and correcting that initial contour. The similarity of the resulting contours was pairwise measured within the manual or the interpolated category. Interactions with the software were recorded, and variations in the contouring workflows steps were compared. Results indicated that using the between-slice interpolation tool for creating the initial contour, instead of initiating it manually, influenced both the contouring process and outcomes. First, it was identified that contours initiated by the interpolation tool showed an increased similarity among themselves compared to the manually initiated contours. At the same time, influences to the resulting contours were below clinical relevance, and toward the desired direction—improved consistency of contours. Second, when interpolation was used, in two cases out of three, the average contouring time also decreased significantly. Therefore, the use of such an automation tool can be encouraged., Mechatronic Design, Industrial Design

Sensemaking theories help designers understand the cognitive processes of a user when he/she performs a complicated task. This paper introduces a two-step approach of incorporating sensemaking support within the design of health information systems by: (1) modeling the sensemaking process of physicians while performing a task, and (2) identifying software interaction design requirements that support sensemaking based on this model. The two-step approach is presented based on a case study of the tumor contouring clinical task for radiotherapy planning. In the first step of the approach, a contextualized sensemaking model was developed to describe the sensemaking process based on the goal, the workflow and the context of the task. In the second step, based on a research software prototype, an experiment was conducted where three contouring tasks were performed by eight physicians respectively. Four types of navigation interactions and five types of interaction sequence patterns were identified by analyzing the gathered interaction log data from those twenty-four cases. Further in-depth study on each of the navigation interactions and interaction sequence patterns in relation to the contextualized sensemaking model revealed five main areas for design improvements to increase sensemaking support. Outcomes of the case study indicate that the proposed two-step approach was beneficial for gaining a deeper understanding of the sensemaking process during the task, as well as for identifying design requirements for better sensemaking support., Mechatronic Design, Industrial Design