A Touch-Only User Interface for a Medical Monitor

Abstract

A touchscreen interface was tested as the exclusive means for interacting with a computer-based monitor for the hospital intensive care environment. The use of touch in the medical environment combined with the fact that it was the sole means of user communication presented several human engineering challenges. Human factors testing of the design used 75 hours of mockup review by 38 clinical and administrative staff. In addition, 680 hours of field trial testing in the intensive care environment by 39 hospital staff were performed. The minimum size of visual and touch-sensitive target areas and the proximity of adjacent areas was determined. The touch recognition algorithm was modified to more accurately recognize near-edge targets. The use of a touch-sensitive QWERTY keyboard for patient name and id entry was shown to be acceptable. N-key rollover was deemed not viable with a touch interface in the critical care area. A swivel mount was introduced to compensate for different height and handed end-users.