Ecological Interface Design for Anaesthesia Monitoring

The operating theatre is a noisy place with many uninformative and redundant alarms. Using data from a recent observational study, we demonstrate that anaesthetists actively respond to only 3.4% of all audible alarms. We outline a range of possible solutions to the alarm problem. Ecological Interfac...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Marcus Watson, W. John Russell, Penelope Sanderson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Australasian Association for Information Systems 2000-05-01
Series:Australasian Journal of Information Systems
Subjects:
HCI
Online Access:http://journal.acs.org.au/index.php/ajis/article/view/268
Description
Summary:The operating theatre is a noisy place with many uninformative and redundant alarms. Using data from a recent observational study, we demonstrate that anaesthetists actively respond to only 3.4% of all audible alarms. We outline a range of possible solutions to the alarm problem. Ecological Interface Design (EID) helps to outline the requirements for an information environment for anaesthetists and to indicate the possible benefits of continuous auditory signals. Our observational data are then "reworked" to give an indication of possible benefits of a continuous auditory display. Finally we indicate steps we are taking to test these ideas empirically
ISSN:1449-8618
1449-8618