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Defining Obtrusiveness in Home Telehealth Technologies: A Conceptual Framework

Department of Health Management and Informatics, School of Medicine, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO

^_* Correspondence and reprints: Brian K. Hensel, PhD, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of Health Management and Informatics, University of Missouri, 324 Clark Hall, Columbia, MO 65211-4380. (Email: henselbk{at}health.missouri.edu).

Received for publication: 11/28/06; accepted for publication: 04/06/06.

The literature of home telehealth technology recommends that systems be designed to minimize their obtrusiveness to end users. However, this term is neither explicitly defined nor consistently used. This paper presents a definition of the concept of obtrusiveness. Within this definition, twenty-two categories of what may be perceived as obtrusive in home telehealth technology are proposed based on a review of the literature. These categories are grouped into eight dimensions. This effort represents an initial step toward developing measures of obtrusiveness associated with home telehealth technology. A validated and reliable instrument would allow for evaluation of individual applications as well as theory-building across applications.