Improving Efficiency of Physiologic Monitoring Through Human Factors

Abstract

Certain inefficiencies exist in the delivery of alarm and other physiologic data to nursing and medical staff. We will show how employing human factors practices will direct and validate a solution to this situation. Querying the intended user, we performed a task analysis on a distributed monitoring concept noting the type of information needed and when it was needed. This data was then used to design the user interface. Recognizing that hard data provides some authority when dealing with design teams, we evaluated the resulting prototypes of the user interface through usability testing. Test scenarios and acceptance criteria were agreed to by the design team leadership to help ensure their buy-in when the testing was completed. Not only do these human factors methods help ensure a useful and successful product, they are necessary to comply with the FDA's increased focus on human factors in the risk analysis of medical devices.