The Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA) framework has recently been applied to the design of patient monitoring systems in acute care medical settings. Work Domain Analysis (WDA), models the problem field in which people act. We argue that the most widely-used form of WDA which uses an abstraction-decomposition space (ADS) may not be the most effective form when applied to ICUs. We propose an approach based on the cybernetic hierarchical control model of Beer (1981) and the systems approach of Forrester (1971).
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