Practical evaluation of the emergency usability lab for testing the usability of medical devices in emergency situations

Abstract

In healthcare, clinical activities are increasingly being relocated to patients’ home environment. Patients can thus continue their therapy in a self-determined manner at home. This trend challenges usability evaluations of medical devices, as patients represent a more heterogeneous user group in terms of experience and training than medical professionals and the use of medical devices by patients can also be influenced by their medical condition. The Emergency Usability Lab was developed as an approach for testing the usability of medical devices of home healthcare focusing on emergency situations. An emergency situation is determined as a situation the patient has to perform certain activities with a medical device while being limited in performance due to certain medical symptoms as dizziness, visual impairment or being short of breath. This paper presents the results of the practical evaluation of the Emergency Usability Lab. Evaluation was carried out applying a between-group design. Within the study, two approved medical devices (blood glucose meter & emergency drug package) were subjected to a usability test. Each product was tested in two groups. In one group the Emergency Usability Lab was applied and the other served as control group. Both groups included 20 participants each. By using the Emergency Usability Lab, a blood glucose meter was tested under simulated conditions of hypoglycemia (lack of concentration and impaired vision) and an emergency drug package was tested under simulated conditions of pain-related shortness of breath (shortness of breath, dizziness and impaired vision). The results of both usability studies were compared with regard to the number of usability issues found and their risk in order to verify the applicability of the Emergency Usability Lab.