Usability Enhancements to a Prototype Clinical Decision Support System for Combat Medics

Abstract

Introduction: A Clinical Decision Support System that provides just-in-time medical guidance at the point of injury is being developed. To develop a user interface, a user-centered design approach was taken.

Materials and methods: To evaluate the system, personas of the users were created, a comparative analysis of the system against the Tactical Combat Casualty Care Card and Battlefield Assisted Trauma Distributed Observation Kit was completed, and user testing was performed.

Results: Many design recommendations were gathered from the user-centered design approach including replacing buttons with a homunculus, replacing prompts with a tree and node system, and allowing more user freedom in working with the system.

Conclusions: Through multiple different evaluations, design recommendations for a clinical decision support system were implemented in an iterative process. More iterations and more formalized user testing are planned to maximize the usability of the system.