An Analysis of Problems with Auditory Alarms: Defining the Roles of Alarms in Process Monitoring Tasks

Xiao, Yan; Seagull, F. Jacob

doi:10.1177/154193129904300327

Cited by 22 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…These included failure to understand alarm context and priority and responding to unimportant or irrelevant alarms. Similarly, Xiao and Seagull (1999) noted that alarm signals lacked information about their clinical significance and priority, leading to these same types of errors. Such errors point to the need for improved alarm coordination and prioritization.…”

Section: Patient Monitorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reducing and Mitigating Human Error in Medicine

Morrow¹,

North²,

Wickens³

2005

Reviews of Human Factors and Ergonomics

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Although precise definitions and models of human error in medicine remain elusive, there is little doubt that adverse events, sometimes involving human error, threaten patient safety and can be addressed by human factors approaches to error. In this chapter, we combine an information-processing framework that identifies perceptual, cognitive, and behavioral requirements of operators involved in health care activities with a system-based perspective that helps define when these needs are met by the health care context. We focus on errors and adverse events related to four broad areas of medical activities: medical device use, medication use, team collaboration, and diagnostic/decision support. For each area, we review evidence for specific error types, operator and system factors that contribute to these errors, and possible mitigating strategies related to design and training interventions that enable health care systems to better meet operators' perceptual, cognitive, and behavioral needs. This review reveals progress in identifying sources of human error and developing mitigating strategies in the areas of medical device and medication use, in part because of tools from human factors engineering that identify user needs and how to design environments to support them. Much less is known about how error emerges from work practices in complex settings, such as collaboration among team members. There is a need for theoretical frameworks to analyze error in the context of routine work practices. Such frameworks will bridge cognitive analyses of individual operators and tasks and more comprehensive theories of organizations, to guide interventions that target medical error at multiple levels.

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Section: Patient Monitorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reducing and Mitigating Human Error in Medicine

Morrow¹,

North²,

Wickens³

2005

Reviews of Human Factors and Ergonomics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, Edworthy et al (2011) demonstrated that increasing the heterogeneity of auditory alarms corresponding to different systems within a railway train cab improved their learnability and discriminability. Furthermore, the study of auditory alarm confusion rates has long been a topic of interest, especially among those in the field of medical alarm design (Xiao and Seagull 1999). Though there have been some efforts towards standardisation (IEC 2005), concerns have been voiced in the literature regarding the learnability and discriminability of existing standards primarily due to physical similarity between alarms originating from different monitoring systems (Lacherez, Seah, and Sanderson 2007;Sanderson, Wee, and Lacherez 2006;Sanderson 2009;Sanderson, Liu, and Jenkins 2009).…”

Section: Organising Sound In Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of pulse rate, fundamental frequency and burst density on auditory similarity

González

Baldwin

2014

Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science

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Auditory displays are currently used in many medical, automotive and aviation settings. Although there are many existing guidelines for developing effective auditory signals, there is a need for more research considering the interaction between signals within a display, especially when sounds originate from conceptually distinct referent systems. Identifying the parameters that are most relevant to auditory similarity can facilitate acoustic branding and the development of guidelines that ensure signals for different systems are distinct without requiring standardisation. Twenty-seven undergraduate students judged the similarity of a set of abstract sounds varying in tempo, or pulse rate, fundamental frequency and burst density. Results indicate that no single parameter is entirely responsible for determining auditory similarity, but temporal characteristics are most salient. These findings have implications for acoustic branding and suggest that designers intending to ensure perceptual similarity and separation between differentially mapped sounds should manipulate temporal characteristics before frequency or burst density.

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“…This produces a false alarm, which could have a detrimental effect on the driver's acceptance of the system (Bliss & Acton, 2003). False alarms have been classified into three major subtypes: traditional, nuisance, and inopportune (Xiao & Seagull, 1999). Traditional false alarms are those in which the device or sensor is improperly calibrated or otherwise faulty in some way.…”

Section: Calibration Maintenance Adjustment and Reliabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%