Work Domain Analysis for Designing a Radiotherapy System Control Interface

Abstract

With rapid advancements in radiotherapy technology, the complexity of the radiotherapy treatment has multiplied over the past few decades. As a result, it has become increasingly difficult for radiotherapists to have a clear and logical overview of the system state during treatment delivery. Any consequent mishaps may result in serious harm to the patient. To address this concern, a novel radiotherapy control and monitoring interface which visualizes complex relationships and constraints within the treatment system may help radiotherapists understand and address any issues that may arise during radiotherapy delivery. As such, Ecological Interface Design (EID) was applied to redesign the user interface used during radiotherapy delivery. A literature review, ethnographic observations, and domain expert feedback were used to establish a work domain model of the radiotherapy system. From the work domain model, information requirements for interface design were extracted. Some of these requirements suggest the need for novel graphic elements which incorporate multiple treatment parameters for more integrated overviews of the system state. The results from the analysis will be used in the subsequent design phase, which will be aimed at designing a more effective radiotherapy monitoring user interface for improved patient safety.

Development of a Cognitive Robotic System for Simple Surgical Tasks

“…Heuristic evaluation, which has previously been used to collect user feedback for radiotherapy systems [66], is an inexpensive and efficient method. However, heuristic evaluation is not enough as a standalone method [67]. Semi-structured interviews [63] and user observation [68] are the other methods used throughout the process together with user scenarios, personal and thematic analysis to pinpoint certain patterns in the surgical interfaces.…”

Using Cognitive Work Analysis and a Persuasive Design Approach to Create Effective Blood Pressure Management Systems

“…A key difference between this analysis and previous works applying WDA in healthcare (e.g., Hajdukiewicz et al, 2001;Wu, Cafazzo, & Burns, 2012) is that, in the patientcentered situation, the patient is both the work domain and the actor. In particular, the ability of the actor to act is tightly coupled with his/her health and motivational state and part of the process of self-regulation.…”

“…In particular, CWA has shown past success in the design of healthcare systems. For example, Wu, Cafazzo, and Burns (2012) conducted a WDA for designing an interface for radiotherapy monitoring systems, and based on their analysis, they made interface design recommendations in order to improve patient safety. Another example is the work of Georges, Burns, Morita, and Ansermino (2013), who performed CWA to elicit the design requirements of a patient monitoring system interface, aimed to assist clinicians in intensive care units.…”

Ecological Interface Design for Knee and Hip Automatic Physiotherapy Assistant and Rehabilitation System

“…To understand this environment and to develop a user interface, a user interface design approach for complex systems, known as Ecological Interface Design (EID), has been applied to the design of the user interface for this system (Burns & Hajdukiewicz, 2004). More recently, EID has been used successfully in healthcare environments (Davies et al, 2005;Wu et al, 2012;Gorges et al, 2013). To our knowledge, automation in the rehabilitation setting has not been explored in the previous EID applications.…”