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In this paper, we have proposed ICU Knowledge Management System (IKMS). Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is specialty-nursing unit for critical patients. An IKMS presented in this paper is designed with usability perspective in Indian ICU environment. This design is based on a study about the scope of ergonomic design and usability for ICU through the fie...
Citations
... It is very hectic and tricky challenge to get an access to busy ICUs [4] and to obtain permission for usability evaluation. A patient privacy, problematic spatial ICU layouts, level of anxiety and surrounding noise [2] The primary focus of video-recording has been on tasks performed by users through user interaction with ventilator systems. ...
A ventilator system provides a respiratory support to critically-ill patients and is used by medical users such as physicians and nurses. Its touchscreen-based on-screen User Interface (UI) helps medical users to input and control diversified parameters during patient care. This research paper explains a usability evaluation of medical UIs of four different models of ventilator systems. Its focus is on primary tasks such as setting up a ventilator system, changing parameter values, patient data entry and setting up alarms and alerts, which are most frequently employed tasks by medical users. For usability evaluation, Cognitive Walkthrough (CW) method is selected as it helps in evaluation of tasks providing correct paths for executing the tasks. By performing CW, many usability problems are identified such lack of valid range for parameters, inappropriate data entry in patient profile, option hidden inside menu, no confirmation about important therapeutic action, no use check, high waiting time and lack of online help. These problems are further categorized into catastrophic, critical and serious problems based on their severity as perceived by medical users in user survey. In future, the identified usability problems should be resolved by designing error-resistant medical UIs of ventilator systems, used in critical environment like Intensive Care unit (ICU).
... [12] and is primarily used in categorization of critical factors based on system evaluation parameters and user interface design. It is really hectic and tricky challenge to get access to busy ICU physicians [13] and make them to respond to such questionnaire, which has 38 critical factors. It has taken more than six weeks to collect responses to the questionnaire. ...
This paper provides a comprehensive overview of critical factors, which affect on-screen user interfaces of medical devices in Intensive Care Unit (ICU). A literature survey with relevant research publications has led to selection of thirty eight critical factors in ICU. The critical factors identified are categorized into various groups based on three major aspects – system evaluation parameters, constituents of patient management and user interface design. Physicians' survey, in which five physicians are involved, is used to categorize the identified critical factors into related groups. In the process, fourteen critical factors are mainly selected, which affect on-screen user interface design of medical devices. The applicability of such factors is demonstrated with the help of a case study of head-injury patient admitted in ICU. The critical factors identified are definitely useful to device manufacturers, user interface designers, ICU administrators and physicians for improved device design, ICU resource management and patient care.
... A field study may be quite stressful and time-consuming work. Getting access to ICUs is a hectic and tricky challenge [3]. During this research, mainly primary and secondary users were targeted for data collection, which include physicians, nurses and engineers/technicians. ...
In this research, we have evaluated the medical icons and iconic interfaces of touch screen ventilator systems used in Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Precise communication through iconic interface between ventilator system and medical users like physicians or nurses is critical to avoid medical errors which may cost patient's life. We have used Usability Testing, User Survey, Lexical Analysis, Semiotic Analysis, Long Distance Visibility Testing (Ergonomic aspect) in combination for evaluating the medical icons. The usability testing was performed through three icon tests -- Test without Context, Test with Context and Test with Comparison. The lexical analysis along with three dimensional analyses in terms of semantics, syntactics and pragmatics was performed. It is evident that evaluation of medical icons is very different in comparison with icons used in general software applications.
A usability model is a hierarchical structure encompassing the key elements such as users, user interface and interaction between them. It is a generic template which is independent of usability evaluation methods and provides flexibility for adaptation in different contexts and domains. In this paper, a usability model for medical user interfaces, especially for ventilator systems in Intensive Care Unit (ICU), is proposed based on Norman’s action-oriented seven-step model to capture a related medical context. A ventilator system is a therapeutic device, which provides a respiratory support to critically-ill patients. Currently, a usability of user interfaces of ventilator systems is evaluated by typical usability evaluation methods from software industry. These evaluation methods miss out important elements in medical context. Therefore, a need for a specialized usability model for medical user interfaces is fulfilled with a proposed usability model encompassing vital elements such as medical user, user interface, ICU environment and time required. This usability model is validated first, through a human work analysis using videos of selected tasks with medical user interfaces and then, with an overview of critical factors affecting medical user interfaces in ICU. In future, a proposed usability model can be integrated with a suitable usability evaluation method for evaluating medical user interfaces to identify related medical usability problems more effectively.
For the traditional implementers of an Hospital Information Management System (HIMS), the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) presents many new challenges. Due to the nature of admissions to this department and the criticality of time for initiating various procedures, many of the processes of HIMS are bypassed. This creates a problem for the HIMS designer. Many conventional HIMS systems handle this by avoiding the ICU from the HIMS implementation, allowing it to continue with the manual process being followed prior to the introduction of the HIMS system. The manual system creates inaccuracies and delays in the information collection and transmission processes. Due to this the senior consultants are denied a complete and comprehensive picture of the situation of the patient that would have been possible with an automated system. The ICU automation system uses a separate ICU server to automate the back-end processes and provide the required isolation from the HIMS server and the stringent processes running there. This server implements a local WiFi network in the ICU that interconnects a set of Tablet PCs running a host of Android applications to automate the workflow there. The ICU server is accessible from the doctors smart phone as well allowing him to view the status of the patient in a comprehensive fashion. This paper presents the system architecture and functionality of important modules.
