The usability failure mode

Recommended protection

Validation

Missing critical information

In emergency, the users might disregard critical information about the patient's situation

Patient situation visualization

The patient situation should be visualized by means of graphical presentation.

The alarm system should present the information using two presentation modes:

• Overview of the patient current situation
• History and trend of a selected parameter

Missing of a critical parameter

The user might focus in one or several patient parameters, but miss another one which is critical to understanding the patient situation

Overview of the patient situation

The detailed view should provide a visual picture of all the sensors attached to the monitor.

For each sensor, the system should provide a graphical description of the scale of measurements, color coded according to the risk level, and a mark of the current measurement.

Misunderstanding the changes in a critical parameter

The user might not perceive the changes in the patient situation.

History and trend of a selected parameter

The system should enable the user to zoom into any of the sensors, providing a graphical description about the trend in the measurements.

Troubleshooting errors

The user might fail to identify the source for the alarm.

Example: the injection that run out of fluid

Facilitate mapping from monitor to responsible sensor

The sensors should include status indicators