Market-leading ventilators are compared in a recently published article in Critical Care. The evaluation, by Plinio P. Morita and colleagues from the Techna Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada, used a methodology that focuses on use safety and user experience.

The study evaluated four ventilators, from Hamilton, Puritan Bennett, Maquet and Drager. The evaluation comprised seven clinical scenarios that involved 16 tasks on each ventilator. 48 critical care respiratory therapists from three hospitals in North Carolina conducted the evaluation at the Clinical Skills and Patient Simulation Center (CSPSC) at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, following exploration-based training. The participants were surveyed to avoid recruiting participants with consulting relationships with manufacturers and to ensure experience balanced among the four families of ventilators. In the study one ventilator scored highest on both use safety and user experience, which combines user perceptions of usability, and workload.

See Also: Patient-Ventilator Asynchrony

The researchers acknowledge that the study is based on qualitative data and therefore different outcomes could be due to a variety of factors, including interaction design, hardware quality and the influence of consumer product technology on users’ expectations.

Image credit: Pixabay

«« Study: ARDS Costs, Survival, QOL over One Year


Optimisation Measures Reduce Risk of Death in Cancer Patients in ICU »»

References:

Morita PP, Weinstein PB, Flewwelling CJ, Bañez CA, Chiu TA, Iannuzzi M, Patel AH, Shier AP, Cafazzo JA (2016) The usability of ventilators: a comparative evaluation of use safety and user experience. Crit Care, 20:263. doi: 10.1186/s13054-016-1431-1.



Latest Articles

ventilators, comparison, evaluation Market-leading ventilators are compared in a recently published article in Critical Care. The evaluation, by Plinio P. Morita and colleagues from the Techna Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada, used a methodology that focuses on use safe