Complementing Medical Device Alarms with Animated Guidance

Caregivers cite medical device alarms as a major annoyance in their work, but also an essential safety net that protects them and their patients from serious harm. When an alarm becomes an annoyance rather than an affordance,a it is typically because it does not provide useful information and interrupts important work. False alarms are annoying for obvious reasons, but so are alarm messages that tersely describe problems without hinting at proper ways to resolve them. Some of the newest medical devices— mainly those with large screens and plenty of computing power—are improving work life for caregivers by guiding them to resolve alarm conditions. For example, an alarm message on a therapeutic workstation might signal the presence of air bubbles in a blood-filled line and provide immediate, step-by-step instructions to remove the air from the blood and restart the therapy. The guidance might even take the form of repeatable animations. Enhanced guidance, such as animations, can take the stress out of alarm troubleshooting and improve patient care by helping caregivers fix problems quickly.