An Evaluation of a Health Video on Demand Service Available to the Public via Interactive Digital Television

The public is rapidly being furnished with digital health information of all kinds and on a wide and expanding range of platforms – kiosk, Web, digital interactive television and mobile device. Along with different platforms are different ways of providing information: text, graphics, audio records as well as two-way communication and video. This paper examines one of the very first attempts to provide the general public with health information and advice via a video on demand (VODs) service, downloadable from a digital interactive television (DiTV). This was the NHS Direct service on the HomeChoice channel available to cable TV-on-demand subscribers in the London area. The authors analyse questionnaire and records of actual video use to build up a picture of the impact the service has. Reported here are the initial results of a video on demand service. Data on users, use, satisfaction and the value of the service was investigated using a combination of log analysis and questionnaire survey methods.