Focusing on usability can limit medical device recalls: Here ’ s how

By Stephanie Van Ness and Rex Palmer of Boston UX Building great software has always been challenging. Building software that safeguards patients while flawlessly controlling sensitive embedded and connected medical devices — from room-sized proton radiation systems to portable automatic external defibrillators (AED) — magnifies the challenge. It should be no surprise that design issues cause many device recalls. So how do you mitigate potential problems when designing a medical device user interface (UI)? Begin with a strong focus on usability. The importance of usability According to researchers Martin A. Makary and Michael Daniel of Johns Hopkins University, medical error is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. They put the number at approximately 251,000 deaths per year. Many of these deaths (as well as non-fatal injuries) are caused by “misuse” of medical equipment. Leading cause of death in U.S. What causes misuse? According to researcher D. Jeffrey B. Cooper writing in BMJ, although the incidence of outright functional equipment failure may be low, “machines can have shortcomings or faults in design that encourage human error.” For example, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported that between 2005 and 2009 infusion pumps and related devices accounted for 35% of medical errors that resulted in significant patient harm. The agency said a large number of the adverse events stemmed from “programming errors attrib...
Source: Mass Device - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Blog Boston UX Source Type: news