What are the specific objectives of the MedISA research project?
Lo Iacono: We want to gather scientific data to identify the ideal measures that have a lasting impact for the different user groups. We teamed up with two clinical facilities to interview the requisite subjects. The clinics have already taken some measures. We plan to survey the test persons from the different target groups to assess how the participants perceived these measures, how effective they considered them and identify special aspects they can still remember. We also incorporated our own ideas for innovative training approaches in the project, which we want to test and evaluate on a scientific basis.
We intend to gather this information and ultimately create a handout with our findings and recommendations medical facilities can subsequently use as an implementation guideline.
How do you plan to achieve these objectives?
Lo Iacono: We organized a series of interviews, participatory workshops, and usability studies with the various target groups to identify training measures that are effective and fit the daily work routine. From there, we will jointly develop the respective measures, which we will subsequently re-evaluate. This means we will also use these measures to increase awareness in the pilot facilities and review them with the participants at the end of the project to assess their effectiveness.
Our idea pertains to a new measure that does not yet exist in this form. Here we take findings from another discipline, namely behavioral psychology, which uses so-called nudge theory. This concept means you "nudge" people in a certain direction and indirectly influence their decision-making. In our setting, the goal is to suggest choices that benefit security and privacy purposes. One could integrate these types of "nudges" into the IT or communication systems.
By using the IT systems and the "nudges", people would receive regular reminders that the steps they are currently taking pertain to sensitive issues. In doing so, awareness would not be created in one day, but on a sustained basis. Employees receive sensitivity training by using the IT systems. Our hope is that when we have the results in three years, we will also be able to declare the measures successful, efficient, and sustainable for large groups.