Improvement of design of a surgical interface using an eye tracking device

Abstract

BackgroundSurgical interfaces are used for helping surgeons in interpretation and quantification of the patient information, and for the presentation of an integrated workflow where all available data are combined to enable optimal treatments. Human factors research provides a systematic approach to design user interfaces with safety, accuracy, satisfaction and comfort. One of the human factors research called user-centered design approach is used to develop a surgical interface for kidney tumor cryoablation. An eye tracking device is used to obtain the best configuration of the developed surgical interface.MethodsSurgical interface for kidney tumor cryoablation has been developed considering the four phases of user-centered design approach, which are analysis, design, implementation and deployment. Possible configurations of the surgical interface, which comprise various combinations of menu-based command controls, visual display of multi-modal medical images, 2D and 3D models of the surgical environment, graphical or tabulated information, visual alerts, etc., has been developed. Experiments of a simulated cryoablation of a tumor task have been performed with surgeons to evaluate the proposed surgical interface. Fixation durations and number of fixations at informative regions of the surgical interface have been analyzed, and these data are used to modify the surgical interface.ResultsEye movement data has shown that participants concentrated their attention on informative regions more when the number of displayed Computer Tomography (CT) images has been reduced. Additionally, the time required to complete the kidney tumor cryoablation task by the participants had been decreased with the reduced number of CT images. Furthermore, the fixation durations obtained after the revision of the surgical interface are very close to what is observed in visual search and natural scene perception studies suggesting more efficient and comfortable interaction with the surgical interface. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) and Short Post-Assessment Situational Awareness (SPASA) questionnaire results have shown that overall mental workload of surgeons related with surgical interface has been low as it has been aimed, and overall situational awareness scores of surgeons have been considerably high.ConclusionsThis preliminary study highlights the improvement of a developed surgical interface using eye tracking technology to obtain the best SI configuration. The results presented here reveal that visual surgical interface design prepared according to eye movement characteristics may lead to improved usability.

Using Eye Trackers for Usability Evaluation of Health Information Technology: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Of the 9 papers, 3 of them (33%) mainly discussed a usability evaluation of an HIT using eye-tracker technology [ 33 , 35 , 40 ]. Of the 9 papers, 3 of them (33%) presented an entire user-centered design process and discussed the usability evaluation of an HIT using eye-tracking technology as one part of the paper [ 34 , 36 , 41 ]. For instance, 1 study discussed how focus groups were used as a way to develop a quality-of-life support prototype, and then evaluated the usability of the prototype using eye-tracker technology [ 41 ].…”

“…We identified different types of HITs in the selected papers. In terms of functionality, the technologies included online health information website interfaces [ 38 - 40 ], surgical interfaces [ 34 ], decision support systems [ 33 , 35 , 36 ], computerized provider order entry systems [ 37 ], and symptom and quality-of-life information systems [ 41 ]. In terms of target users, the health care information technologies were for the general public [ 38 - 40 ], patients [ 33 , 41 ], and physicians [ 34 - 37 ].…”

“…Researchers evaluated HITs in the forms of developed computer website/application [ 33 , 34 , 38 , 40 ], simulated prototype [ 35 , 36 , 41 ], and screenshots [ 37 , 39 ]. Researchers used three different kinds of eye trackers to collect data: on-screen eye trackers (Tobii T60 and T120) [ 33 , 38 , 40 , 41 ], mobile eye trackers that are external to a personal computer (Sensomotoric Instruments [SMI] 500, Tobii X-60 and X120) [ 34 - 36 ], and head-mounted eye trackers [ 37 , 39 ]. Experiments were conducted either in a usability lab room or a meeting room.…”

Stability and Workload of the Virtual Reality–Based Simulator-2

“…Similar results were noted in a study using a virtual reality system as a surgical interface. 17 Additionally, increasing the level of immersion perceived by the user could also be used to decrease the mental workload experienced by users. 26…”

“…15,16 It has been applied extensively in studying virtual interfaces of simulators and HMIs. [17][18][19] In this study, the Raw Task Load Index was used as an overall measure of perceived workload, 15,16,20 calculated by averaging the scores from 6 subscales: mental demand, physical demand, temporal demand, effort, frustration, and performance. 15,16,20 Ranging between 0-100, higher Raw Task Load Index indicates higher workload.…”