Need for a new paradigm in the design of alarms for patient monitors and medical devices

Craig S Webster; Penelope Sanderson

doi:10.1016/j.bja.2021.08.001

Need for a new paradigm in the design of alarms for patient monitors and medical devices

Br J Anaesth. 2021 Nov;127(5):677-680. doi: 10.1016/j.bja.2021.08.001. Epub 2021 Sep 2.

Authors

Craig S Webster¹, Penelope Sanderson²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anaesthesiology, and Centre for Medical and Health Sciences Education, School of Medicine, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. Electronic address: c.webster@auckland.ac.nz.
² Schools of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, Psychology, and Clinical Medicine, The University of Queensland, Queensland, Australia.

PMID: 34481659
DOI: 10.1016/j.bja.2021.08.001

Abstract

Modern computerised medical devices emit large numbers of tone-based alerts and alarms. Notifications that comprise auditory icons or natural human speech substantially increase the psychological salience of alerts and alarms and may allow a larger set of notifications to be used, as they do not require memorisation of arbitrary sounds.

Keywords: device alarms; human factors; patient safety; physiological monitoring; system redesign.

Publication types

Editorial
Comment

MeSH terms

Clinical Alarms*
Humans
Monitoring, Physiologic