A novel human-computer interface creating a framework for the cognitive ergonomics of ECG interpretation

Cairns, Andrew; Bond, Raymond R; Finlay, Dewar; Breen, Cathal; Guldenring, Daniel; Gaffney, Robert; Henn, Pat; Gallagher, Anthony; Peace, Aaron

Abstract

Predominantly the 12-lead Electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretation process remains a paper based approach. However, the ECG in this format creates a significant cognitive workload for an interpreter due its complexity and the plethora of knowledge that is required to interpret an ECG. As a consequence, this often leads to incorrect or incomplete interpretation of an ECG. Even expert clinicians have been found to act impulsively and provide a diagnosis based on their first impression, and therefore often miss co-abnormalities. To compound this, it is widely reported that there is a lack of competency in ECG interpretation. This therefore, leads to the demand to optimise the interpretation process. With health services wanting to reduce costs by becoming paperless, we see an opportunity to use interactive human-computer interfaces to guide and assist the interpreter in the ECG reporting process. Therefore, a digital interactive computing system was manufactured to structure the cognitive ergonomics of a clinician while interpreting an ECG. The system deconstructs a 12-ECG into a recognised five-step ECG reporting procedure. The five-step procedure is then presented across a series of interactive web-pages which prompts the clinician to progressively interpret the ECG. The system was developed responsively for an online environment with key principals including consistency, user feedback and familiarity of terminology for end-users. This therefore creates the provision for clinicians to access the system ubiquitously across a spectrum of platforms and devices.Human-computer interaction in healthcare is an important research domain as interactive clinician-friendly systems will continue to be implemented in health services to help guide the cognitive ergonomics of clinicians in practice.

Citation

Cairns, A., Bond, R. R., Finlay, D., Breen, C., Guldenring, D., Gaffney, R., …Peace, A. (2016, October). A novel human-computer interface creating a framework for the cognitive ergonomics of ECG interpretation. Poster presented at Irish Human Computer Interaction Conference, Cork

• Presentation Conference Type: Poster
• Conference Name: Irish Human Computer Interaction Conference
• Conference Location: Cork
• Start Date: Oct 5, 2016
• Deposit Date: Nov 3, 2022
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2947952
• Related Public URLs: https://pure.ulster.ac.uk/en/publications/a-novel-human-computer-interface-creating-a-framework-for-the-cog-3