Goodbye “Single- Sensor- Single- Indicator” Displays
This study used a display method developed using iterative design method. The goal is to replace the numbers displayed on ICU patient monitors with representational graph. The current number based systems use “single-sensor-single-indicator” display paradigm. This requires clinicians to integrate sequential, piecemeal data to reach an understanding of the patient’s condition. This is complicated by the fact that 67-90% of the generated alarms by monitor devices are false positive.
Using graphs generated by multiple sensors would aid the situation awareness and though the prompt response by clinicians. It has been shown that monitoring systems that increase situation awareness shorten the time between the occurrence of unexpected events and correction of the events.
This study is one of multiple that evaluates similar displays. This study focuses on this sort of displays in ICU settings. The study consisted of observation and questionnaire submission. The result shows that clinicians did observe this display and they think it is a desirable addition to current ICU monitors.
The vital thing in such displays is that they generate an easy to understand graphs that pull data from different sensors and though decrease the cognitive load. This should lead to better decisions.
