Interface Design and Human Factors Considerations for Model-Based Tight Glycemic Control in Critical Care

Several studies have shown a relationship between poor outcome and uncontrolled blood glucose (BG) in cardiac, neurosurgical, critical care, and general surgical patients. A major study showed that tight glycemic control (80–110mg/dl) was related to increased mortality. Based on evidence from controlled studies, the American Diabetes Association, and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, maintaining intraoperative BG levels in the 140–180 mg/dl range seems appropriate. Optimization of the patient's preoperative medications and the use of insulin infusions, as well as surgical and anesthetic technique, are important factors for achieving desirable perioperative BG control. Minimizing BG variability during surgery should be part of the glycemic control strategy. Advances in real-time glucose monitoring may soon benefit hospitalized diabetes and nondiabetes patients.

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Novel Interface Designs for Patient Monitoring Applications in Critical Care Medicine: Human Factors Review (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.15052 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Evismar Andrade ◽

Leo Quinlan ◽

Richard Harte ◽

Dara Byrne ◽

Enda Fallon ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Critical Care ◽

Human Factors ◽

User Interfaces ◽

Interface Design ◽

Response Times ◽

Clinical Performance ◽

Vital Signs ◽

Careful Study ◽

Design Changes ◽

Meta Analyses

BACKGROUND The patient monitor (PM) is one of the most commonly used medical devices in hospitals worldwide. PMs are used to monitor patients’ vital signs in a wide variety of patient care settings, especially in critical care settings, such as intensive care units. An interesting observation is that the design of PMs has not significantly changed over the past 2 decades, with the layout and structure of PMs more or less unchanged, with incremental changes in design being made rather than transformational changes. Thus, we believe it well-timed to review the design of novel PM interfaces, with particular reference to usability and human factors. OBJECTIVE This paper aims to review innovations in PM design proposed by researchers and explore how clinicians responded to these design changes. METHODS A literature search of relevant databases, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, identified 16 related studies. A detailed description of the interface design and an analysis of each novel PM were carried out, including a detailed analysis of the structure of the different user interfaces, to inform future PM design. The test methodologies used to evaluate the different designs are also presented. RESULTS Most of the studies included in this review identified some level of improvement in the clinician’s performance when using a novel display in comparison with the traditional PM. For instance, from the 16 reviewed studies, 12 studies identified an improvement in the detection and response times, and 10 studies identified an improvement in the accuracy or treatment efficiency. This indicates that novel displays have the potential to improve the clinical performance of nurses and doctors. However, the outcomes of some of these studies are weakened because of methodological deficiencies. These deficiencies are discussed in detail in this study. CONCLUSIONS More careful study design is warranted to investigate the user experience and usability of future novel PMs for real time vital sign monitoring, to establish whether or not they could be used successfully in critical care. A series of recommendations on how future novel PM designs and evaluations can be enhanced are provided.

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