Critical for the early diagnosis of genetic disorders, a Family Health History (FHx) can be collected in several ways including electronic FHx tools, which aid easy editing and sharing by linking with other information management portals. The user acceptance of such systems is critical, especially among older adults experiencing motor and cognitive issues. This study investigated two types of FHx interfaces, standard and Virtual Conversational Agent (VCA), using 30 young (between 18 and 30) and 24 older participants (over 60). Workload, usability and performance data were collected. Even though participants required less time to complete three of five tasks on the standard interface, the VCA interface performed better in terms of subjective workload and usability. Additionally, 67% of the older adults preferred the VCA interface since it provided context-based guidance during the data collection process. The results from this study have implications for the use of virtual assistants in FHx and other areas of data collection.

Background: The percentage of patients relying on information provided by their peers in the form of consumer reviews rather than the information found in healthcare reports from federal agencies is expected to increase. To encourage the use of these healthcare reports, which contain data from a more representative sample, several researchers have suggested incorporating consumer reviews in them. Objective: This study aims to identify the factors in these consumer reviews that affect the decisions of healthcare consumers as they choose their providers. Method: We recruited 310 participants through Qualtrics Research Services to participate in a 3*2*2*2 within-subjects study. We used the dentistry domain to test the effect of the valence of the review, the staff rating, the facility cleanliness rating and the dentist’s bedside manner rating on patient's trust in the information, the decision to choose a dentist and the confidence in the decision. Results: The findings suggest that valence of the review, the dentist’s bedside manner rating and the cleanliness rating of the facility significantly influence the consumer’s decision to choose a dentist and their trust in the information. In addition, the staff rating was considered the least important element in the consumer reviews. Conclusion: We conclude that in addition to narratives of patient experience in the form of reviews, consumer ratings like bedside manner and cleanliness are important cues that aid the consumer’s decision-making process while ratings such as a staff rating, which do not consider the interactions with the actual healthcare provider, are not as critical.

There is an increasing concern about the trustworthiness of online reviews as there is no editorial process for verification of their authenticity. This study investigated the decision-making process of online consumers when reacting to a review, with the reputation score of the reviewer and the number of previous reviews incorporated along with anonymous and non-anonymous reviews. It recruited 200 participants and developed a 3 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 mixed experimental study, with the independent variables being the reaction to a review of a restaurant at 3 levels, the reputation score at 2 levels, the number of previous reviews at 2 levels, the valence of the reviews at 2 levels, and the level of anonymity at 2 levels. Five dependent variables were analyzed: level of trust, likelihood of going to the restaurant, a choice question of whether to go to the restaurant, confidence in the decision and the NASA-TLX workload. This study found that the reputation scores complemented the reaction to a review, improving the trust in the information and confidence in the decision made. The findings suggest that incorporating a user rating scale such as the reputation score of a user deters people from writing false or biased reviews and helps improve their accuracy. Although no significant effect of level of anonymity was found in this study, additional personal information about the users writing the review such as photos or other social media links may make a significant difference in the decision-making process.