The design of a user interface for a ventilator-management advisor

The lack of user acceptance for many medical decision-support systems should force medical software developers to rethink strategies for user interaction with decision-support programs. Participatory design is an emerging method for the development for computer applications that emphasizes user involvement in both the design and implementation phases. We have applied participatory design to the development of a user interface for VentPlan, an application that assists physicians in the management of artificial respiration of critically ill patients. In this paper, we present a case history of the participatory design process and describe the resulting interface for the VentPlan program. As a result of applying participatory design ideas, we gained insight as to how to implement VentPlan more effectively.