A User-Centered Evaluation of three Intravenous Infusion Pumps

Abstract

Considerable research has focused on whether medical equipment can be made safer/more effective using user-centered design principles. Medication errors may result from improper operation, mechanical failure, and tampering. The present study evaluated the effectiveness and advantages of three intravenous infusion pumps. Five evaluators used heuristic evaluation to identify, categorize, and prioritize usability problems. Positive and negative features were classified according to usability and design principles. The most common negative feature was difficulty setting up an infusion. The most common positive feature was visual feedback regarding pump status. The methodology was effective at identifying a number of problems. Ongoing research involves testing domain-experts to validate the severity of the usability problems identified and discover other safety-relevant errors.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Emergency Care Research Institute. (2002). New perspectives on general-purpose infusion pumps: Advances in technology, changes in our ratings. Health Devices, 31, 355–384.

Garmer

Liljegren

Osvalder

A-L.

Dahlman

(2002) Application of usability testing to the development of medical equipment. Usability testing of a frequently used infusion pump and a new interface for an infusion pump developed with a Human Factors approach. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 29, 145–159.

Leape

L. L

Bates

D. W.

Cullen

D. J.

Cooper

Demonaco

H. J.

Gallican

Hallisey

Ives

Laird

Laffel

Nemeskal

Petersen

L. A.

Porter

Servi

Shea

B. F.

Small

S. D.

Sweitzer

B. J.

Thompson

B. T.

Van Vliet

(1995). Systems analysis of adverse drug events. Journal of the American Medical Association, 274, 35–43.

Lin

Isla

Doniz

Harkness

Vicente

K. J.

Doyle

D. J.

(1998). Applying human factors to the design of medical equipment: Patient-controlled analgesia. Journal of Clinical Monitoring and Computing, 14, 253–263.

Nielsen

(1994a). Enhancing the explanatory power of usability heuristics. Proceedings of the ACM CHI 94 Conference, 24–28.

Nielsen

(1994b). Guerilla HCI: Using discount usability engineering to penetrate the intimidation barrier. In Bias

R. G.

Mayhew

D. J.

(Eds.), Cost-Justifying Usability (pp. 245–272). Boston: Academic Press.

Nielsen

(1994c). Heuristic evaluation. In Nielsen

Mack

R. L.

(Eds.), Usability Inspection Methods (pp. 25–62). New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Rossen

M. B.

Carroll

J. M.

(2002). Usability Engineering. New York: Morgan Kaufmann.

Vicente

K. J.

Kada-Bekhaled

Hillel

Cassano

Orser

B. A.

(2003). Programming errors contribute to death from patient-controlled analgesia: Case report and estimate probability. Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, 50, 328–332.

10.

Wade

J. G.

(2003). Patient safety in anesthesia – continuing challenges and opportunities. Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, 50, 319–322.