Acceptability and Usability of an Ambulatory Health Monitoring System for Use by Military Personnel

OCCUPATIONAL APPLICATIONS A physiological status monitoring system was evaluated for use by soldiers in the field. Two different designs were evaluated, with the design based on previous human factors evaluations proven to be more comfortable and acceptable for use. This study demonstrated that the advanced design of the EQ-02 physiological status monitoring system met dismounted soldier needs. Furthermore, this study validated the use of a usability evaluation in the successful design/advancement of a physiological status monitoring system. TECHNICAL ABSTRACT Background: Previous research has shown that the form factor of a physiological status monitoring system, the Equivital™ EQ-01 (Hidalgo Ltd., Cambridge, UK) had problems associated with comfort and usability of the system for soldiers. Previous data gathered was used to guide improvements in the physiological status monitoring system. Purpose: Assess whether the previous feedback from usability evaluations helped guide improvements in comfort, accep...