Hindawi Publishing Corporation Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine Volume 2013, Article ID 618025, 16 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/618025 Research Article Design and Customization of Telemedicine Systems Claudia I. Martínez-Alcalá, 1 Mirna Muñoz, 2 and Josep Monguet-Fierro 1 1 Multimedia Engineering Department, Universitat Polit` ecnica de Catalunya, ETSEIB, Avenida Diagonal 647, Barcelona, Spain 2 Centro de Investigaci´ on en Matem´ aticas, Avenida Universidad No. 222, 98068 Zacatecas, ZAC, Mexico Correspondence should be addressed to Claudia I. Mart´ ınez-Alcal´ a; isabel.martinez.alcala@estudiant.upc.edu Received 22 January 2013; Accepted 22 March 2013 Academic Editor: Giner Alor-Hern´ andez Copyright © 2013 Claudia I. Mart´ ınez-Alcal´ a et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In recent years, the advances in information and communication technology (ICT) have resulted in the development of systems and applications aimed at supporting rehabilitation therapy that contributes to enrich patients’ life quality. Tis work is focused on the improvement of the telemedicine systems with the purpose of customizing therapies according to the profle and disability of patients. For doing this, as salient contribution, this work proposes the adoption of user-centered design (UCD) methodology for the design and development of telemedicine systems in order to support the rehabilitation of patients with neurological disorders. Finally, some applications of the UCD methodology in the telemedicine feld are presented as a proof of concept. 1. Introduction In recent years, the advances in information and commu- nication technology (ICT) have enabled the development of systems and applications aimed at supporting rehabilitation therapy and, therefore, contributing to the enrichment of patients’ life quality [1–3]. Te creation and implementation of web-enabled communication, patient services, and other e-Health initiatives have been signifcantly developed and enhanced in order to improve the quality of health services and maintain a competitive advantage. Consequently, the quality of health care has signifcantly improved [4, 5]. Tra- ditionally, technology has supported health professionals by providing instruments, diagnosis, and diferent therapeutic treatments [6]. Moreover, the information and communica- tion technologies have expanded their application to manage- ment and planning activities of health areas. Tus, companies involved in the health area must expand their capabilities to all stakeholders, including patients and the public in general towards robust, efcient, and friendly telemedicine systems [7, 8]. According to the literature [9, 10], doctors and nurses make use of the Internet in two mainly ways: (1) for commu- nication, to send information through email, and (2) as an extensive library, to consult the clinical information. Also, it is mentioned that they have good computer skills, a positive attitude towards using the computer and Internet, and are motivated to use both ways on daily activities. However, [11] mentioned that some health professionals still show some resistance towards the acceptance of new technologies, even when some health sectors are beginning to integrate ICT in some of their felds. Besides, Bernard et al. [12] mention that ICTs ofer practi- cal and timely mechanisms for continuing medical education allowing the improvement of educational programs for health professionals in rural areas [13–15]. Simultaneously, ICT may also have an important role in transferring clinical data [16]. Te American Psychiatric Association (APA) states that once the information is stored, it is essential to have access to it. Moreover, recent technological advances have enabled the introduction of a broad range of telemedicine applications, such as teleradiology, teleconsultation, telesurgery, remote patient monitoring, and health-care records management that are supported by computer networks and wireless com- munication [17–20]. Trough the development of user interfaces for health- care applications, researchers have empirically evaluated the efectiveness of diverse user-centered design (UCD) ap- proaches [21, 22]. Health-care sofware developers ofen over- look relevant user features, user tasks, user preferences, and