Abstract
In 1997, work began on a project, funded by the European Commission Telematics Application Programme DG XIII to develop a computerised Hand Assessment System (HATS - Hand Assessment and Treatment System). One of the principal objectives of the project was to determine if the new computerised hand assessment system enabled significant time savings to be made over current practices. HATS has currently entered its evaluation stage at two European hospital sites, The Therapy Department, Mid Staffordshire General Hospitals Trust, UK and Orthopaedische Klinik, Volmarstein, Germany. A protocol was drawn up to directly compare the performance of HATS against existing tools and practices, over an eight-month period. This study, which began on August 1 1998, is being conducted with several hundred patients between the two sites. This paper sets out to describe the construction of the protocol and briefly outlines the results to date based on the first fifty five patients.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.