Designing Novel Physiologic Monitor Displays for Combat Medics
Mabel L Cummins1, Sean Yang1, Caroline Sicard2
1Department of Anesthesiology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37212, USA.
Military Medicine
|August 20, 2024
Summary
Combat medics benefit from configural displays for vital sign monitoring in noisy environments. Eye tracking shows increased attention to configural displays during emergencies, improving situational awareness.
Area of Science:
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Biomedical Engineering
- Military Medicine
Background:
- Combat medics face challenges with medical alarms in high-noise military environments.
- Elevated noise levels impair effectiveness and attentiveness to alarms.
- Previous work introduced a configural display for vital signs, outperforming numerical displays.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess visual attention and engagement with concurrently presented numerical and configural vital sign displays using eye tracking.
- To evaluate display preference and information acquisition during simulated critical events.
Main Methods:
- 30 participants monitored simulated patient vital signs using dual displays (numerical and configural).
- An N-back task simulated multitasking in a military setting.
- Eye tracking recorded viewing time, dwells, and fixation patterns.
Main Results:
- Participants spent more time viewing the configural display than the numerical display.
- During emergencies, configural display viewing increased significantly (30% to 50%).
- Participants directed nearly half of emergency fixations to the configural display within 2 seconds.
Conclusions:
- The configural display is preferred and effectively utilized during critical events.
- Integrated vital sign displays enhance communication of patient status in complex environments.
- Configural displays support rapid decision-making for combat medics.
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