Page 98 - ITU KALEIDOSCOPE, ATLANTA 2019

2019 ITU Kaleidoscope Academic Conference

interface which allows a user to interconnect lab equipment
automatically and features reporting, auditing, and managing
workflows. These systems are constantly needing to adapt
their interface layout and elements to the demands of the
user. For example, GNU LIMS is currently unable to respond
to the users working environment, including accommodating
the changing sizes of the screens [10].

In general, these systems are developed to address the
traceability of samples, tests, and other patient information in
resource-constrained areas. Traditionally, these systems have
been designed to be used on a low-performance computer,
a small-size monitor, and old-version software at limited Figure 1 – The registration page of C4G BLIS
network speed. However, the infrastructure for information
and communication technology has been rapidly improving
for the last decade. For example, 167 million of 1 billion
people in Africa have access to the Internet, and connectivity
is on the sharp rise [11]. Almost all the open source LIS
programs cannot keep up with the growth of infrastructure
and computing environments in the global south.

The technological changes in the global south are exemplified Figure 2 – One of the issues of the current interface -
in a recent study conducted in Africa. Adedeji et al. surveyed inconsistent layouts of the query builder
206 nurses in Nigeria to investigate current and preferred
documentation methods and tools for the use of electronic customizable workflow - Lab administrators can determine
health records in a hospital [5]. Although 94% of the nurses their preferred workflows with configurable user interfaces.
in the survey managed patient records using paper-based It means that the system does not require additional training
processes, 80% wanted to change to electronic methods. for new users by adopting their work procedures. and 3)
Forty-two% of the nurses surveyed preferred to use mobile Flexible database - This feature allows to add and modify
devices such as iPad, Tablet PC, or Android Phones, while data fields as labs evolve. For example, as the specimen types
desktop computers were the least preferred devices in this and results may vary widely across laboratories and change
survey. This is interesting in light of the fact that more of over time, even within the same lab, the system can handle the
them used computers compared to mobile phones or tablets, diversity and transition smoothly. Despite many advantages
79.6%, 35.4%, and 14%, respectively. of the system, there were also some problems with its user
interface.

3. C4G BLIS
3.2 Problems of the Current Interface
In this section, we present the overview of C4G BLIS and
analyze the problems of the current interface of the system. In this section, we highlight problems within two core
Then, we propose a more advanced interface to resolve the modules of the system - search and registration. Figure
problems. 1 shows the user interface for a registration function. By
selecting one of the search fields (e.g., Patient Name and
3.1 Overview Patient ID) and entering keywords, a user can retrieve
patients’ information. The problem of this page is that the
C4G BLIS is an open-source web-based system to track size of the actionable components is not responsive to its
patients, specimens and laboratory results. It has been working environment. For example, the system cannot adjust
developed and managed by the Georgia Institute of the size of the drop-down list for a small-size smartphone.
Technology, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Similarly, the tiny Search button in the current interface will
(CDC) in the United States, and Ministries of Health of also be difficult to touch or press in the same environment.
several countries in Africa since 2011 [12]. Unlike other
laboratory information systems, C4G BLIS was designed to In the Reports page of C4G BLIS, a user can generate various
address the challenges of resource-constrained settings such reports by filtering on specimen type, test type, period, and so
as computing infrastructure, variability in lab practices, and on. As shown in Figure 2, similar search options and buttons
difficulty of record-keeping. The system provides three key are inconsistently located across the sub-pages of Reports.
features: 1) Robustness - To guarantee the stable operation It means that the user needs to remember all the different
under limited access of the Internet, it does not rely on locations of the same or similar components in each page to
online-based libraries for any of its operation. It only requires perform the same task; otherwise, the user should skim over
a simple network router, which can locally interconnect each page for every trial. Consequently, this interface is likely
computers in a hospital. 2) Fully configurable and to result in a high cognitive load or low task performance. We

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