Heuristic evaluation, when modified for medical devices, is a useful, efficient, and low cost method for evaluating patient safety features of medical devices through the identification of usability problems and their severities.

Numerous health care systems are designed without consideration of user-centered design guidelines. Consequently, systems are created ad hoc, users are dissatisfied and often systems are abandoned. This is not only a waste of human resources, but economic resources as well. In order to salvage such systems, we have combined different methods from the area of computer science, cognitive science, psychology, and human-computer interaction to formulate a framework for guiding the redesign process. The paper provides a review of the different methods involved in this process and presents a life cycle of our redesign approach. Following the description of the methods, we present a case study, which shows a successfully applied example of the use of this framework. A comparison between the original and redesigned interfaces showed improvements in system usefulness, information quality, and interface quality.

An interruption was found to have no consistent definition in either healthcare or nonhealthcare literature. Walker and Avant's 8-step method of concept analysis was used to clarify, define, and develop a conceptual model of interruption. The analysis led to the identification of 5 defining attributes that include (1) a human experience; (2) an intrusion of a secondary, unplanned, and unexpected task; (3) discontinuity; (4) externally or internally initiated; and (5) situated within a context. Use of the defining attributes will be extended to form a category of interruption within a taxonomy of activity.

Background-The emergency department has been characterized as interrupt-driven. Government agencies and patient safety organization recognize that interruptions contribute to medical errors. The purpose of this study was to observe, record, and contextualize activities and interruptions experienced by physicians and Registered Nurses (RNs) working in a Level One Trauma Center.