Tasks


The intent of the study was to evaluate ECG monitoring performance in a simulated clinical setting. Two concurrent clinical tasks were constructed: the primary ECG task, and a secondary BP management task to provide cognitive loading and a second measure of user performance. For the ECG task, the subjects were instructed to name the ECG rhythm displayed. For the BP task, the subjects were told to state the proper corrective measure when the BP deviated outside its bounds; upon this command, the BP is reset to normal by the investigator. In both cases, the subjects must respond as rapidly and accurately as possible. Every event-both system-generated events (the onset of a new ECG rhythm or transition of the BP across a boundary) and user-generated events (an ECG rhythm diagnosis or BP "order")-are captured as encoded timestamps, from which post-hoc analysis yields a variety of performance measures.


table of contents...


copyright © 1997 Stan Kaufman, M.D.