Reading this paper had my hands aching. Perhaps a strange way to begin a response to an academic journal, but my hands ached fairly noticibly when the arthritis was detailed in any way.
That aside, the parts of the paper that I found interesting were those about gaguing the perceptions of the syringe. I never thought of inquiring about how a syringe feels in ones hand or how the perceptions of the instrument of medicinal delivery affect paitients’ willingness to comply with their regimin. A syringe, to me, is a syringe. How the design influences potential success of a course of treatment.
(My first thoughts went to diabetics who must prick themselves for their health. These meters come in a variety of designs, and I wonder at the ergonomic methodologies of these designs affect the patients’ successes with monitoring their blood sugar.)
Another interesting note about the methods used in deciphering the effictiveness of the new syringe’s design was in how much of the medicine was reaching the body. The measurement of force through the use of a dynometer made me think of my father who worked on “dynos” all of the time for NASCAR:
I never knew what those were.
Dynos are super cool! They mesure Torque, Force and Power. The dynometers used for the medical and ergonomics fields transfer a persons’ abilities to apply force or torque to a lever or pulley. Then math is applied – multiplying force by the perpendicular distance from the force and the axis. Those for motors measure and compare power transfer at different points on a vehicle.