Development and evaluation of a compartmental picture archiving and communications system model for integration and visualization of multidisciplinary biomedical data to facilitate student learning in an integrative health clinic

Information technology (IT) has the potential to improve the clinical learning environment. The extent to which IT enhances or detracts from healthcare professionals’ role performance can be expected to affect both student learning and patient outcomes. This study evaluated nursing students’ satisfaction with a novel compartmental Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) for the automatic object-oriented integration and visualization of heterogeneous biomedical data. The compartmental PACS was specially designed to support client assessment and clinical education in the integrative health clinic of a university, which is run by a multidisciplinary service team. The sample was 63 nursing students, who were asked to complete a series of realistic tasks using the compartmental PACS. Upon completing the tasks, the Computer System Usability Questionnaire (CSUQ) was administered to assess their satisfaction with the system. Results from data analysis showed that nursing students who completed the evaluation had a satisfactory experience with the system. The Information Quality subscale mean was the highest mean of the CSUQ subscales. This is an important finding as the multidisciplinary data visualization feature of the system provides a technology-enhanced learning environment that can support nursing students’ efforts to both organize and represent knowledge. Through the compartmental PACS, students are assisted in connecting relevant knowledge via various representations of medical data for the clinical conditions under study.