Seminar 9
1. Please discuss how you think the perceived ease of use and usefulness may differ among the different demographics.
– Age
– Gender
– Education level

For age, I think the younger generation would find it easier to use new technology, while the older generation generally struggle with the skills of using smartphones and operating apps. The perceived usefulness may however be opposite. The younger generation may be accustomed to the various utility that technology brings and they may not have serious health conditions that require frequent e-health usage. Meanwhile, the elderly who have more chronic conditions and are more oblivious to the benefits of technology may find e-health systems to be more useful.

For education level, I think it is a similar trend with age. People with higher education level will definitely find the system easier to use since they are more knowledgeable about various vocabulary and the rationale of system design, while people less educated and hence have less exposure towards technology may find it more difficult to use. The perceived ease of use might be the opposite. Higher educated people may be more familiar and used to the utility of such information system, resulting in lower perceived usefulness, while people who are less educated and have no experience in this domain may perceive higher usefulness.

As for gender, I think it is more difficult to tell. In terms of psychology, it is known that males and females are similar in temperament. Males are more interested in things while females are more interested in people. Therefore, it depends on the design of the system. If the system is more complicated to use, involving more complex processes, this may interest males and be easier for them to use. If the system is centred around patient care and demonstrates more empathy, this may interest females and make them perceive the system to be more useful.

2. In your experience of using e-health applications or systems, what are some external factors or variables that should be considered to extend the proposed model for assessing the intention to use the system?

I think one thing that is important to consider is the trust towards the system depending on its origin or its developer. People are more likely to trust impartial, transparent, and authoritative figures, such as universities, as opposed to opaque organisations with their own self-interests, such as private companies. I am very reluctant to input my personal health data into a system developed by private companies because I don’t know how they will store them or whether they will secretly sell my data. An example in Hong Kong is that many people are generally reluctant to use e-health systems due to a fundamental distrust in the government. Nearly all e-health systems are government-initiated, and people are afraid that their data would be secretly monitored for political purposes besides medical usage. Therefore, I think it would be interesting to investigate the perceived trust of users by varying the source/developer of the system.