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Integration of Visual Metaphors in an Anesthesia Interface

Amsterdam, K. van (2010) Integration of Visual Metaphors in an Anesthesia Interface. Master's Thesis / Essay, Human-Machine Communication.

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Abstract

Anesthetists maintain a stable health in patients during surgery. They keep track of patient variables on the monitors and subsequently determine the appropriate treatment. In current anesthesia practice, a substantial amount of anesthesia-related accidents is due to human error in monitoring (Cooper et al. 1984). In this thesis we studied the influence of metaphors in a patient monitor on the monitoring behavior in anesthetists. We presented anesthetists and anesthesia residents with a new kind of patient monitor. This new monitor represents patient information visually as colored rectangles where height and width are proportional with the variableʼs value. Each rectangle is situated in a frame that represents the steady-state value of that variable for the patient. These visualizations of patient variables are called “metaphors” and they provide the anesthetist with additional information compared to the numerical values and curves in a classic anesthesia monitor. We hypothesized that a monitor with metaphorical patient information would decrease anesthetistsʼ recognition time of complications in a monitoring task. In a static monitoring task, anesthetists and anesthesia residents were presented with screenshots of the monitor that displayed anesthesia-related complications. Subjects responded when they recognized the complication that was presented. Subsequently, subjects were asked to select a method of medication and diagnosis for the displayed complication. Five types of monitors were presented to the subjects; classic, metaphorical (MAI), metaphorical with trend arrows (tMAI) and 2 redundant monitors (classic and MAI, classic and tMAI). The results showed no significant decrease in response times for the metaphorical monitor compared to the classic monitor. There was also no difference in response time for the trend versus the no-trend monitor types as well as in the redundant versus the single monitor types. More than forty percent of complications in the trials were identified incorrectly; therefore more research is needed to evaluate the metaphorical monitor in less complicated tasks.

Item Type: Thesis (Master's Thesis / Essay)
Supervisor name: Cnossen, F.
Degree programme: Human-Machine Communication
Thesis type: Master's Thesis / Essay
Language: English
Date Deposited: 15 Feb 2018 07:30
Last Modified: 02 May 2019 12:34
URI: https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/9049

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