Design and Evaluation of a User Interface to Facilitate Cardiac Monitoring

Abstract

Patient monitoring devices are complex and highly specialized systems. We present an enhanced display of the alarms that facilitates cardiac monitoring and supports the clinicians during the diagnosis process. Three different interactive user interface prototypes were developed using web technologies. To maximize acceptance among professionals, we extended the ECG parameter of an existing monitoring interface with visual cues directly at the wave, to show where exactly an alarm happened, an alarm timeline beneath the wave (showing the last events) and an animated detailed view of an event. The new user interface lowered the perceived cognitive load and accelerated the detection of abnormalities in the wave.