Touchscreen Infusion Pump Parameter Confirmation via Icon Tracing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users of portable infusion pumps often inadvertently confirm incorrect programming due to familiarity with touchscreen interfaces, leading to potential medical errors as they quickly interact with confirmation buttons without properly reviewing entered parameters.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a confirmation process that requires users to trace pictorial icons related to the programmed parameters on the touchscreen, enhancing user awareness and reducing the likelihood of mistakes by associating the confirmation with the specific parameter being programmed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a touchscreen interface with simple confirmation buttons is used, then ease of operation is improved, but reliability deteriorates as users inadvertently confirm incorrect programming
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of having users click a generic confirmation button, the patent inverts the confirmation process by requiring users to trace the outline of a pictorial icon that represents the specific parameter being programmed. This reversal of the typical confirmation interaction forces users to engage with the actual parameter content rather than simply pressing a button, thereby maintaining ease of touchscreen operation while significantly improving reliability by preventing inadvertent confirmations
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a pictorial icon as an intermediary element between the parameter text and the confirmation action. This icon serves as a visual mediator that users must actively engage with by tracing its outline, creating a cognitive link between the confirmation gesture and the specific parameter being confirmed. This intermediary prevents users from blindly confirming without reviewing the programmed values
2Productivity
If users quickly interact with confirmation buttons due to touchscreen familiarity, then productivity is improved, but manufacturing precision deteriorates as programming accuracy decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent reverses the typical fast confirmation interaction by requiring a deliberate tracing motion around a pictorial icon. This inversion maintains productivity by still using a touchscreen gesture rather than multiple steps, but improves programming accuracy by making the confirmation action inherently slower and more deliberate, forcing users to visually engage with the parameter representation before confirming
Solution Approach 2:
The pictorial icon is displayed to users before they perform the confirmation tracing action. This preliminary visual presentation of the parameter representation allows users to review what they are about to confirm, ensuring programming accuracy is maintained even as the interaction remains efficient through a single tracing gesture rather than multiple verification steps
Data Source
AI summary
Enhanced confirmations for programming of touchscreen infusion pumps reduce the likelihood of users confirming pump parameters that have been mistakenly programmed. Following programming of a given pump parameter, an icon or image intuitively related to the pump parameter can be displayed on the touchscreen. To confirm programming of the parameter, the user can be required to trace the icon on the touchscreen. The user will therefore necessarily associate the confirmation step with the parameter being programmed and be far more likely to realize if a mistake has been made because the user was intending to program a different parameter than with simple confirmations involving the press of a confirmation button.