Medical Device Human Factors Testing in Toronto, Canada: Our Experiences with Electrosurgical Generators and PCA Pumps

Inhalt:
In recent years there has been an increased focus on adverse events in health care. There is a growing realisation that some of these events are triggered by complex and confusing medical devices, and that device users work in a hectic environment where distractions are routine. At the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation at the University Health Network in Toronto, we have developed the capacity to conduct high fidelity simulations of clinical environments that allow user-device interactions to be captured. Coupled with heuristic evaluations of the devices, these studies help us to understand the problems that users face, and to develop strategies to try to reduce them. Two specific studies are described, with electrosurgical generators and intravenous PCA infusion pumps. In addition, some more general conclusions are presented about the value of this approach with medical devices.