Evaluation of Medication System Interface

Motivation – Development of a quantitative method for identification of interface design flaws. Research approach – Cognitive task analysis and fault analysis methodology were used to design a tool to capture expert user’s experience with the interface. Findings/Design – Experienced users provided estimates of failure rates for each point in the fault tree. We found the need for numerous work-arounds impacted the time required for processing medications, making the interface under study inefficient. The method identified specific steps in the process of using the interface where re-design could improve efficiency. Originality/Value – This method can be used during system development, system selection or post deployment assessment of problematic systems. Take away message – This methodology provides an accessible method of quantifying error rates in specific components of the interface.