Taxonomy of surrogate users for the development and evaluation of medical devices from the end users' perspective

The development and evaluation of medical devices from users' perspectives requires the involvement of actual end users of medical devices. This kind of involvement of end users may not be always possible. A solution to this may be employing surrogates of end users. Nevertheless, this requires the identification and classification of appropriate surrogates. The study undertaken below reviewed relevant literature and suggests a taxonomy of surrogates of end users of medical devices. The taxonomy will be helpful in planning and making decisions in relation to the involvement of such surrogate users in developing and evaluating medical devices from the users' perspectives.